This is actually the 50th blog I’ve written since I started back in May 2013 when the initial impetus was the shock of Anita’s breast cancer diagnosis and the need to think about the balance between personal and professional and whether the boundaries shift if you do a regular blog.
We have, I hope, but the breast cancer behind us – although ironically the mammogram machine had broken down so Anita was able to have her check-up today. We told ourselves last year that this experience would mean that we would keep the everyday and the trivial in perspective. I think that by and large we have done that; although sometimes it’s easier said than done.
A case in point has been my application for HEA Fellowship which I finally submitted today (the cut-off date). To get this in on time I’ve worked on it late into the evening and early in the morning and have skipped gym sessions and runs. So at that level I’ve been taking it seriously. And I have also been asking colleagues to take it seriously when I’ve asked them to comment either on my inputs to different course team or to comment on the actual application itself.
Perhaps the best way to see it is of striking a balance. It would be disrespectful to see this application is trivial because people put a lot of thought into it (as I have done). The same applies to other things. For example, this week I’ve also been working to get the assessment strategy for New perspectives in health and wellbeing written. I want to do a good job for my own satisfaction and so that colleagues are not let down and I get a buzz when I feel that I’ve been creative, imaginative and productive. And I’d like to think that this buzz makes it more likely that next time I’ll be that bit more creative.
I do think I’ve learned from last year but I think this learning has contributed to make me feel more confident in what I say or do on the basis that I got through the last 12 months, so the ‘day-to-day’ is generally likely to be do-able. I think I back myself more than I’ve ever done before. The idea of backing myself is something that I do in relation to running. I’ve just got back from a 10k run to take my total for 2014 to 466k. In those early stages when it seems like hard work, I ‘back myself’ to get round relatively comfortably –and it usually works. In the same way I backed myself to get the OpenPAD application in.
So having got the OpenPAD off the stock, what am I going to back myself on next? Well, I could back myself to do another 50 blogs. I’m already backing myself to run 1200k this year (and am a nice 15k ahead of schedule). I could also back myself to go on developing my writing about teaching and learning. The nice thing about this is that doing this would encourage others, particularly students at the OU to back themselves a bit more.
I’m actually in holiday today so really am blurring the boundary between professional and personal. Have just opened a bottle of merlot, so I’m backing myself to enjoy that.
To paraphrase John Ebdon, ‘if you have been thanks for reading’.
jonathanhughes53 