Bow ties are making quite a come back these days and chances are you're seeing a lot more of the around. While many wear them as a fashion statement, I'm thinking that they offer us a great metaphor for how we deal with growth and life's challenges.
Be Different
It's important to embrace your individuality, especially in the field of education. There are so many big box approaches to curriculum and school in general, successful integration of forward thinking and unique approaches is what students need to learn and grow. Besides wearing a bow tie, my example for this is how I've embraced standards based grading in my classroom experience. This is a drastic departure from the normalcy that my students see in their "day to day" and it took research, thoughtfulness and determinination to get it to being accepted and valued by students and their parents/ guardians.
Embrace Difficulty
Tying a Bow tie isn't easy. In fact i started out wearing clip on ones (I know - that's cheating) because of this mystique behind tying them. Often times we shy away from things that are perceived to be too difficult and never grow. This is a mistake and perpetuates mediocrity. Additionally, with online tutorials and asynchronous learning, difficult tasks can be learned and practiced at your own pace.
Create Your Brand
Being different and accepting the challenge to do difficult and unique things bring with it the tremendous opportunity to create a niche for yourself. By trying something new that is challenging, but rewarding you will reap the benefits of growth. Once you try it, you'll find it easier to challenge yourself again. What challenges have you embraced that have set the stage for your growth?