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This episode takes a look at 7 focus questions that will improve our ability to teach or coach. I discuss the book, The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever by Michael Bungay Stanier. This book suggests 7 focused questions that will open up conversations to lead toward personal development. As a teacher, I find these questions useful to engage my students in a thinking process that will guide them to personal development success as a student and contributing member of society later.
Monthly Focus: CLARITY
Previous episodes introduced the new feature on the podcast: the monthly focus or theme and a weekly mission with some suggested questions to guide listeners.
The focus or theme I chose for the month of January is: Clarity. In last week’s episode I talked about the importance of clear space for clarity of thinking. I promised to offer weekly missions to help listeners discover clarity. The past weeks’ missions focused on clarity in our calendars and clarity in our personal spaces.
Weekly Mission: Personal Habits
This week’s mission is to seek clarity about our personal habits. By becoming clearer about our personal drives, routines, compulsions, and physical space, we will be able to create more space for mindfulness and focus.
Here are some questions to help us find this clarity:
(1) Do I have little drives, compulsions, or routines that I do daily? Start by noticing these things and making a list of them to examine in more depth later.
(2) Do I complain about things that I do or that happen routinely to me? Take a closer look at these things and decide whether they are the product of some habit or addiction that you have.
(3) Are there any new habits or routines that would be better replacements for old habits and compulsions that I no longer want to continue?
Develop a plan to tackle one thing at a time in the lists of unproductive habits or routines to gain personal clarity about the things that you do without thinking.
Other Useful Resources
Here are two other resources related to this episode:
Asking the Right Questions (podcast episode 15)
This book has many great resources (podcast interviews and videos) and was interesting and quick to read. I bought this book so that I could mark it up and really dissect the information.
What I am Reading
I am still reading (or listening) to several books at a time. Here are the books I’m working with now:
You know that I will be podcasting about the lessons I have learned from each of these books, so if you are interested in reading alongside me, click on these books.
I am a big fan of Audible. I have used this service for years and I enjoy the process of deciding which books will be worthy of my time and attention. If you are interested in this service, click here for a free book:
I just finished listening to The Man on the Mountaintop by Susan Trott, which was an audible original. Excellent and uplifting! Many lessons to observe from this!
I am currently listening to:
This book is really interesting! If you want an insider’s look behind the curtain of our judicial and social policy system, this book is the one for you. Senator Harris narrates, and her stories are compelling and informative. I highly recommend this for anyone who wants to understand how things really work in our judicial system today. Very entertaining book to listen to!
How to Encourage the Teach Suzuki Blog and Podcast
Contact Me
I really enjoy hearing from my readers and listeners. If you have a question, a comment, a suggestion, or an idea for future articles and podcast episodes, please consider contacting me. You can find me by email (paula@teachsuzuki,com) or find me on Facebook (Teach Suzuki).
Leave a Review
Many listeners ask how they can support the podcast. If you are a fan of the podcast, you can help to support it by leaving a rating and review. Here is how to review the podcast:
- Launch Apple’s Podcast app.
- Tap the “search” tab, enter “Teach Suzuki,” tap the blue Search button, and you will pull up the podcast.
- Tap on the album art for the podcast.
- Scroll down to the “write a review” link, and leave a rating and a review.
- That is how easy it is!
Buy The Twinkle Project
You can also support the blog and podcast by making a purchase of The Twinkle Project, which is my book to help teachers and parents of young violin beginners. This book takes teachers and parents through all of the steps to teach a complete violin beginner all the way through the “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” variations and begin the next steps to learn “Lightly Row.” Included in the book are many forms and checklists to guide teachers and parents through the progression of steps to learn this important initial stage to play the violin.
Episode 54, The Twinkle Project
If you have questions or answers or you would like to comment or leave me a voice mail, you can do so at (512) 537-6356. If you would like to send me an email, you may do so at paula@teachsuzuki.com. I welcome comments and questions about this episode and am interested in hearing about the perspective of other parents and teachers.
You may find more information and useful articles on my blog at: Teach Suzuki Blog.
Until next time,
Happy Practicing!
—– Paula —–
© 2019 by Paula E. Bird
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