{"id":37635,"date":"2017-01-26T11:52:02","date_gmt":"2017-01-26T19:52:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=37635"},"modified":"2017-01-26T11:52:02","modified_gmt":"2017-01-26T19:52:02","slug":"less-is-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/less-is-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Less is more?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"keyword\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Welcome to 2017. It\u2019s started in an odd way hasn\u2019t it? When the world seems topsy-turvy, I find it\u2019s even more important to take a moment to pause. To think. To take stock, re-orient, reassess and set new goals. I hope many of you took a break. I\u2019ve had a month off and it\u2019s been very refreshing.<\/p>\n

Following my sister @anitranot\u2019s advice, I don\u2019t make new year\u2019s resolutions anymore. I choose a keyword to guide my actions. The year @anitranot encouraged me to choose \u2018brave\u2019 as my keyword was interesting and difficult, but ultimately worthwhile. I tried to be brave with my choice of clothes by giving up wearing black \u2014 a habit I picked up when I studied architecture two decades ago. The Year of Brave was when I started reading all the feedback on my teaching, especially the negative stuff, with a really open heart.<\/p>\n

Being brave at work meant saying no to some things and yes to others. It meant being honest and saying what I really thought in meetings, even when I felt intimidated. This sometimes worked against my basic impulse to please. One of the downsides of trying to please at work is over promising and under delivering. I learned that people respect you more if you set clear boundaries and expectations, rather than try to be super woman.<\/p>\n

By the end of the year I think I was certainly a better teacher and a better colleague. I\u2019m still working on this stuff obviously, but the Year of Brave got the ball rolling.<\/p>\n

The idea for 2017\u2019s keyword came when I was listening to the \u2018Fresh Air\u2019 podcast by NPR. The interviewer was talking to the comic Stephen Colbert about, amongst other things, taking over the Late Show<\/a>. Colbert talked about the challenge of taking over an interview style show that was already so well established.<\/p>\n

For the first six months, Colbert struggled to live up to other people\u2019s expectations. This attempt to please others made it difficult to find his own style of doing the show. Trying to be something he was not took a lot of effort. Eventually he couldn\u2019t keep it up and something great happened when he stopped trying, as he puts it:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a great gift of exhaustion that comes on you from doing a show like this over and over and over again (\u2026) you actually lose all those second thoughts. And then you\u2019re allowed to sort of be yourself with your guests, finally. And again, about six months into the show, I went, OK. I don\u2019t have any \u2013 I don\u2019t have any energy left to overthink this. I just have to do what instinctually feels good to me. And every aspect of the show got better and got easier and became more like me because I didn\u2019t have time to think about \u2013 I didn\u2019t have the energy to think about it anymore.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, in the spirit of letting go a little, this year my keyword is \u2018Less\u2019<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to aim to have less stress and worry. I would like to buy less, so I can have less of a mortgage at the end of the year. I want to eat less so I can lose this last 5 kgs of my post-pregnancy weight (when your teenager is nearly a head taller, it\u2019s time). I want to be less lazy about exercise. I\u2019d like to work less hours, but I don\u2019t want to achieve less, so I\u2019ll need to look for ways to be more efficient. I want to do fewer projects, so I can spend more quality time on the ones that are important to me \u2014 especially my \u201cHow to be an academic\u201d book for New South Press (it\u2019s on its way Phillipa, I promise!). I want to talk less, which means I will listen more.<\/p>\n

Of course, it\u2019s the height of first world (white) privilege to be able to aim for less, but my hope is that by doing less, I hope to make space to give more.<\/p>\n

I asked people on my various social media channels if they would like to what keywords people had in mind for 2017. The Facebook post ended up being viewed by over 11,000 people and got 178 reactions.<\/a> There were 79 comments \u2013 a record for my Facebook page incidentally, and way too many to report here. I encourage you to have a look because there was an interesting and enlightening range of responses.<\/p>\n