'Next Steps'



As a teacher, when a new report card format came out, like many of my colleagues, I was not thrilled. It meant once again learning an entirely new way of evaluating each child and then having to explain the changes to parents. 

 'How much farther from the truth were we going to go in reporting on our students?'  I wondered as I puzzled over the new report cards. You couldn't fail anyone, you couldn't come right out and say they were doing poorly or that they were not trying hard enough.

 The report card, like so many other aspects of life, was forced to become 'politically correct'.

Having said all of that, there was one new term that was adopted at that time which I found ludicrous then, but useful now. The term was 'next steps'. 

 After reporting in words, not numbers or grades, on the child's progress or lack thereof, you then had to write, in words, what their 'next steps' should be in order to bring about improvement. Even if the child was doing well you had to specify what their next steps should be. That was hard at first. But it forced me as a teacher to think in terms of 'next steps'. 

 It forced to me to think about ONE STEP AT A TIME.

 Sometimes we are so busy keeping or eye on a certain goal, for example, recovery from depression, that we forget to break it down into steps. Breaking goals down into steps and then concentrating only on the next step would probably be a good way to handle depression.

For instance, maybe I am having a bad day, but I have managed to get up and have a bath. My next step would be to get dressed, my next step breakfast, and maybe those will be my only steps for the entire day. Maybe by thinking about ONE STEP AT A TIME, I can avoid becoming overwhelmed. If I just concentrate only on my next step, I can actually succeed at something!

 WHAT ABOUT YOU? How are you feeling today? What might your 'next step' in depression recovery be? Does breaking down tasks into baby steps help you?

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