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Episode 211: New perspectives - Embracing travel and reflective time

Sometimes you've just gotta hit reset! We're discussing travel time and reflective time this week. What do new perspectives bring us? Do we forget too often about getting that fresh air for thinking time? Plus, the crew share how the best ideas come to them when on the move.

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Podcast Transcription


Andy Psarianos:

Yeah, I'll start. I'll start. So, Hey, Adam, so you're going away. You're going, to Kenya, right? To train some teachers and stuff. How, how important is it to you to get away from like your workspace and just be somewhere different? Get away from us. Yeah, exactly.


Robin Potter:

actually to get away from us.


Adam Gifford:

No, I think it's hugely important. I honestly do. think that...you can't help but have a new perspective.

I think whenever you go anywhere, whether you're traveling anywhere, you're putting yourself in a position that's different from what you know, and that will bring its own responses from you. But I think that when you're going to places where you get a chance to be with people that do things perhaps differently to you, but some things are shared, the same thing, I think that having that change of perspective does two things.

One, I've never failed, doesn't matter whether I'm going to, I don't know, somewhere down the road, a school down the road, or I've been very fortunate like we all have, been to schools all over the world. One, you learn when you're away. And some of that learning can be real steep. And I quite like that. I think that that's pretty awesome because you're learning a huge amount. But I think also when you come back, I've never seen my like home, what I do, my day to day the same having been away.

And I know you two, you've been away for different reasons, both of you, but I suspect the same would be true for you guys. I don't know. What are your thoughts?


Andy Psarianos:

Absolutely. mean, I, so whenever I go away, I always bring like, uh, you know, some kind of journal and, uh, you know, because my mind sort of explodes when I'm away, because I guess getting out of the routine and getting out of the, um, you know, I suppose, uh, autopilot. Yeah. You, you know, I, I, I find that I have all these, all these things that, my brain, you know, it's just like my brain opens up and you find answers to things that were complicated before, or that you couldn't find clarity on because you're, you just, know.

And I was on holiday, but I think the same is true when you go on a trip that's like work related or whatever, or, you just break up your routine and maybe go to a conference or go to a training session or whatever. It just gives you a chance to step away and look from a different view, right? A broader view at things and you see things that you don't sometimes see, right? You can reflect on things in a way that you normally can't reflect. think it was super important and incredibly useful.


Robin Potter:

Yeah, I was going to get on the reflection piece, Andy, because, and I think I was telling you both that, you know, one of my favourite things, I was just away as well. just sitting on the beach, watching the sunset, honestly, listening to the waves, that did a tremendous amount more than I even realized.

I mean, I was enjoying the moment, but just having that time for clarity and just to reflect and then coming back home, as you said, it's like a reset for me. I just, I felt completely reset and a different perspective, even though I'm coming back to exactly what I had left. It was just, it's almost, it's not meditative, but in some way, or form, it was just, you know, yeah.


Andy Psarianos:

Well, it sort of is actually, it is kind of meditative. You do, you know, you, you, it's about resetting and, and, and, uh, being able to shut the noise off, I guess, right. And, uh, get a little bit deeper in your thoughts.


Adam Gifford:

I I think too, the prompts that we get. So we're on sitting and the three of us, as we sit to record this, the spaces are quite familiar to us. We're not doing this from anywhere different. So we know our surroundings and we'll get some prompts from our surroundings at different times. even if you're going outside for just, I've got a wee lane that turns into a country lane. It's exactly half an hour from the time I leave my door to reach the end of the lane and back. Exactly.

And even that, like you can just get some prompts that you might not get. A bird comes in, or whatever it might be, it doesn't really matter. It doesn't have to be mystical. It doesn't have to be wonderful. But the stimulus is different. And there's those times where some stimulus provides something to food, like you're saying Andy, about, I don't know, either the penny drops or you think about something differently or you give yourself that space to think.

And that can happen. I find that can happen anywhere. I mean, I'm a huge fan of public transport. I love just sitting on it. And that alone is enough, prompts, prompts, prompts, or whatever it might be. And I think that changes well, that you don't know what the stimulus or how you're going to react to it in different things on different days.


Andy Psarianos:

Yeah, absolutely. mean, I, you know, I, my, my, as I know Robin as well, like my work day ends with walking to dogs, right? You know, like that's kind of cause the dogs, you know, they don't let me forget that they need to be walked. So, you know, and I go out and I usually go down to, there's a dog park and it's on the waterfront and I go there and you know, there's, I live in Vancouver, so there's, there's ships sailing by and sometimes it's rainy and misty and sometimes it's sunny and warm and you know, you get all kinds of different things, but you just get out and again, it just gives you that chance to reset, you know, and maybe you'll use that time to make a phone call and have a conversation with someone that you care about or you'll, you know, just put some music on or sometimes you'll just listen to the sounds of the birds and you know, and it resets you, right? And that's important.


Robin Potter:

Yeah, it is. It is. And then on that theme, thinking about, again, about maybe leaving your area and going further afield. So when traveling, you know, the people that you meet and, Adam, you're talking about the locals you're going to be training. Like, what better way to get to know an area and have a different experience or eye..an eye-opening experience when you are engaging with people from that country or that town or that city and having a new perspective.


Adam Gifford:

100%. 100 % and I think, I know, I mean the three of us I think, I think it would be fair to say that for the three of us, sort of travels with passion. Like it's just something that that's the way it is and I think a big part, I'll speak for myself but I wouldn't be surprised if it was true for the two of you, is that putting yourself in those situations that it just, to see how other people are doing things, whether it's in your own country or other countries.

And I think it really does make you consider, well, it does for me anyway, and Andy, you're talking about using a journal, which by its very nature is reflective. You've said the same thing, Robin, is that I think that when you're looking at things and maybe something's done differently, and you look at it with a learning lens, right? What we want our children to do, which is one that says, wonder why they're doing it like that. Not, you don't do it like that. You do it like this, because that's always the way it's done.

You know, just trying to understand, just, this is how it's done here. I wonder why. And I think there's such phenomenal amount of learning that takes place. mean, you know, like there's no question that when I go away, it's only in a few days now, get the smaller, spend a small amount of time, but a really wonderful amount of time, I'm sure, in Kenya, that's going to be really different for me, because it's very different to where I am right now. And one of the things that excites me hugely is the people.

right at the top of this, the people that I'm gonna be working with, and I'll learn a phenomenal amount from them, but just being in an environment that's different to mine, you can't help unless you walk around with your eyes closed and your fingers in your ears, you you can't help but learn a huge amount, but also, you know, one thing I'll try to do is reflect on my life here, say that I've got here while I'm away. And I think that getting out of your environment allows you to do that, you know.

really does and I think it's well for me it's incredibly important but I can't see how it can't be beneficial for anyone.


Robin Potter:

What about for people, and we've touched on it a bit, but for those people that they don't really like traveling, they don't like going too far beyond, you know, and you mentioned it Andy, just with the beach example of taking your dogs down to the beach, every day there's something different going on. So it's not that you have to go too far away to kind of get that reset in different ways, you know, just, yeah.


Adam Gifford:

Not at all. Just very quickly, in schools, what I would find is that I, especially when I was in leadership, I'd be in my office, so I had my space, if you like, and there was always stuff that you could do, always, you know, there's always too much to do on any given day, and so you could feel really tied to it. And I had to be really disciplined, sometimes just to go for a walk around the perimeter of the school. And it doesn't sound, but I found that difficult.

to pull myself away from what I felt that I needed to do, even though when I came back, I was a lot more productive. I could probably get whatever the task was that I was sort of blocked on, done. And I think that, so it's not necessarily about traveling to exotic places or things like that, but just that change in environment that gives you a chance to step away from whatever it is that's, you know.


Andy Psarianos:

Yeah. And I think fresh air is a big part of it too, right? Like just get outside. Yeah. And I think it's same as true for kids too, you know, and I think that sometimes Adam, you've told these stories many times before, but you know, like just get the kids outside and get them to have a bit of a run around or even if the death.., if the weather's horrible, maybe especially when the weather's horrible, get outside and just, you know, and, um, yeah, get some air.

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