Why is Personal Mastery important?

“Everything happens to me”: the reactive attitude (source)

People often assume that the world is full of forces that exist outside of us, and that we can only play with the cards we have been dealt. We sometimes blame unfavorable forces for our own failures and shortcomings. Translated to the school: the size of the group, the low level of the children, the attitude of the parents, the attitude of the management or the inspection. We look at what “the system” does and try to prevent the unpleasant consequences. 

Teachers often feel like a plaything, they have the feeling that they are not living themselves, but are being lived, that they are surviving! 

A reactive attitude and complaining behavior of people in an organization reinforces itself, it often works “contagious”. Complaining is like a rocking chair: it makes you feel good, but it doesn’t get you any further. Fear, hostility, apathy and fatalism raise their heads. The school then gets into a downward spiral. Look around you in the school and you will see the following two types of employees: the reactive attitude and the creative attitude.

“I create my future”: the creative attitude

People with a high degree of personal mastery are characterized by a creative disposition. Someone with a creative disposition asks themselves in life: “What do I want to create? What am I doing here in this world? What is my personal mission?” 

He does not blame the world around him, but considers in what way he himself contributes to the difficult situation and how he could change it. He is constantly looking for opportunities to provide innovative solutions and to make his mark on his life and on the environment. Of course, there are always expectations from outside, you can never fully determine what you do.

You also have to deal with this in your work as a teacher. There are simply things that “have to be done”. There are also limitations within yourself, in your own possibilities. But the question is: do they “have to be done” by yourself (do you impose this on yourself?) or are you indeed forced to do this? If we think about it for a while, the space that we as humans have to shape our own lives and work appears to be very large. It is about actually using that space. 

In a learning organization, people choose the creative attitude. They continue to work on increasing their ability to achieve what they really want. In such a school, this is the true meaning of the word “learning”. Self-confidence and competence continue to grow continuously as they learn.