Tag Archives: Kelly Croy

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3 Things You Own That Are Keeping You From What You Want

We own a lot of stuff.

I recently looked at a house for sale, and two thoughts immediately came to my mind, “Wow! These people own a lot of stuff. If we were to buy this house, how would they ever pack it all up?” The second was, “My family sure owns a lot of stuff, how would we ever pack it all up?”

Among all of the physical trinkets, items, and perhaps even necessities in our life, there are other ‘things’ we own that we are not even aware of that have a negative impact. They aren’t packed in a box or sitting on a shelf. We carry them with us everywhere we go.  Becoming aware of the ownership of these things and taking small steps to remove them will go a long way in our own personal success and happiness, as well as the happiness and success of all the people around us.

There are three things that you own that are keeping you from everything that you want.

That’s a pretty bold statement, but it’s true, and one of them is a goat. Yep, a goat.

I’m as guilty as the next person. Owning these three things have prevented me from the relationships I want, the opportunities I want, and even the things I want in life.

Here are the three things you own that are keeping you from what you want, and what you can do about it: Click to Read More

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Speaking at The World Education Summit

Speaking With John Hattie, Jo Boaler, Sal Kahn and so many MORE.

I am excited to be a speaker at The World Education Summit. I had three (3) sessions accepted! This is my second time speaking at the World Education Summit. Some of my education heroes are speaking there as well like: John Hattie, Jo Boaler, Sal Kahn and so many MORE. It is an extravaganza of teaching and learning! Such an honor and privilege.

Learn more at www.worldedsummit.com  and follow @WorldEdSummit #WorldEdSummit

My three (3) presentations:

Session One Title: Start a Podcast and Teach the World: The Wired Educator Podcast by Kelly Croy 

3 Key Points from Your Session

  • The Most Important Thing I Have Learned from Creating 232 Episodes
  • Discover Why Podcasting is Absolutely the Best Social Media Platform
  • Learn the Ingredients of a Successful Podcast

Session Two Title: Don’t Hope Children Develop Coping Skills for Anxiety, Teach Them: A Book Talk on Unthink Before Bed by Kelly Croy

3 Key Points from Your Session Click to Read More

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Books I Read in 2022 and Some Thoughts on Reading

I find great enjoyment and personal growth in reading every day. I am not a fast reader. I tend to take my time with my books, and I really try to apply what I am learning.

I am including a list of the books I read in 2022 in this post, but first some thoughts on reading:

Reflecting on my reading for last year I have three takeaways:

  1. First, I would like to read more fiction. I think we all need a story in our head. We need a diversion from the seriousness and busyness of life. We need to see there are problems bigger than what we are facing. We need to be inspired. I only read one piece of fiction last year. I will do better.
  2. Next, reading a lot is NOT the goal. I am not trying to read for mileage, but for enjoyment and to learn. If I can read more, wonderful! It’s not a competition. One book can change a life. I want to read those books. I want to write those books.
  3. Finally, I resolve to mix up and diversify my reading for this year. I read too much in the same categories, same authors, and my reading is pretty predictable. I did a little better on this last year, but I hope to discover some gems outside my wheelhouse of reading.

Five things I read reach day: Click to Read More

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And Then It’s Our Turn

You Are Not Self-Made, Someone Opened a Door for You

Anything good that has happened in my life is because someone else helped me along the way.

I loved reading “I am Not a Self-Made Man” a foreward written by Arnold Schwartzenegger in Tim Ferriss’s book Tools for Titans, where Arnold credits every success in his life to the opportunities others have given him. He credits and names the mentors from his life. It’s wonderful. Too many people think they did it on their own. Nope. Someone was there.

Sure I worked hard, put in the time, figured some things out, and went the extra mile, but if others had not stepped forward to open doors, give me a chance, a look, an offer, extend an invitation, share me with others, well, I would not have gotten anywhere. None of us are self-made. As my favorite band U2 sings, “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own.”

The movie Rocky looks to be at first recollection a the story of a man rising from his underdog status, completely on his own, to eventually achieve greatness (a Cinderella story, but she had help too you know) but if we look closer, an opportunity had presented itself. It was the opportunity of another, the opening of a door that allowed Rocky’s talents to play out. Rocky needed the chance, despite how hard he trained, he needed access to become great. He needed the event. Someone opened the door. He walked through.

I was twenty-one years old when Dan Kalo, a middle school principal, gave me a chance to teach. Wow! Who does that? My current position was an opportunity others encouraged me to pursue. I was given another chance. Amazing!

I could tell you the name of the first person to invite me to speak at their event, bought my first painting, bought my first book and every awesome first experience I’ve had. I’ll bet you can too.  It humbles me still to think others are willing to do that for all of us.

And then it’s our turn.

Click to Read More
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My Habit Trackers, To-Do Lists and Journals

If you want something done you either do it now or you schedule it. Since you can’t do everything at once, you might be creating a pretty long list.

I’m proud of the accomplishments in my life, but I’ve got more on the way. In fact, I think I am just getting started.

I’m proud of what I accomplish each year, month, week and most days. It’s not luck. What I finish is the result of goal setting in my journals, habit tracking, and a daily to-do list.

I am sharing with you the exact tools I use, both physical and digital, of how I work in hopes you will find some value in them and try them out, as well as share some of your tools and processes in the comments.

Click to Read More

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My One Word for 2023

A few years ago I added an important ingredient to my annual planning and goal setting process, the ‘my one word for the year’ theme made popular by writers Jon Gordon, Dan Britton and Jimmy Page in their book, One Word That Will Change Your Life.

The concept from the book is that the properly chosen word can summarize our goals and resolutions for the entire year into a single word. A single word allows focus, simplicity, determination, and according to the authors, a greater percentage of success than just making a list. I however do both.

Their book guides you through a helpful process centering around three questions:

What is needed? What’s in my way? What must go?

I have improvised my own method of getting to my own word that works well for me. My method centers around the guidance in the book, my journaling, a deep reflection on the previous year, and listing words that I believe are suitable and choosing among them.

Click to Read More
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Get Out of Here!

Every time we leave town our problems shrink because our perspective grows. 

I had the pleasure this past week to leave town and visit family.

While I enjoyed: hanging out with relatives, good food, and exchanging fun stories, another blessing crossed my mind; it is a wonderful gift to change your location, routine and perspective.

The nine hours in the car wasn’t easy, but my wife and I really got to spend some time with one another. Physical discomfort of sitting for so long aside, there is a genuine importance to switching up your routine and literally getting away from the perspective from which you see the world the majority of the time.

As hard as I try to bring variety and a fresh perspective to my work and my family life, I fall into a routine. I see the same things. I do the same things. I talk about the same things. Most significantly, I observed, my approach to life becomes a bit routine.

Just being on the road allowed me to count my blessings and change my perspective as we encountered people who were: homeless, in distress, in trouble, sour to the world, and challenged in many unique ways. Our family has our own challenges too, but what we saw was a reality of life that we are typically spared from during our work and school week routines. We don’t encounter these harsher realities, or when we do it’s on the news and a bit distant. (Don’t even get me started on how our social media consumption literally and figuratively filters the world into a false ‘magical place of beauty and perfection.’)

We all need a change in perspective a little more frequently.

My biggest takeaway: The problems I thought were problems are not really problems.

I had more fun than I deserved with some amazing family, but I am also thankful for the needed change in perspective our travels highlighted.

Routines begin to narrow our focus ever so gradually until we have a pretty fixed mindset.

Every time we leave town our problems shrink because our perspective grows.

I challenge organizations to encourage visits to conferences and other organizations, even ones outside of their line of work, and to bring outsiders with powerful stories and uniques perspective into your organization. We need to share ideas and takeaways. We must consistently work to expand our perspective.

~Kelly

If you like what you’ve read, please share-out with our friends on social media and tag me. Don’t forget the #LeadEveryDay hashtag. Can’t wait to hear your thoughts.

Educator, Author, Keynote Speaker
Twitter: @kellycroy
Instagram: @kcroy
Website: kellycroy.com and wirededucator.com
Podcast: The Wired Educator Podcast
and of course: Facebook.

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I’ve written two books, Along Came a Leader a book on personal and professional leadership, and Unthink Before Bed: A Children’s Book on Mindfulness .

Send me an email. 

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The Six Obstacles to Innovation

Innovation is quite simply “finding better ways to do things.” Too often innovation is lumped in with technology.  It’s not devices that make something innovative, it’s ideas, methods, and systems. Hardware and software sometimes aid innovation, but not always.

In the end, innovation is about improvement, something you’d think everyone would rally around, but sadly that is not the case.

A lot of leaders and organizations say they want innovation, but do they? Most wait until they see others doing something innovative and then try to catch up. That’s not innovation.

Here are the six obstacles to innovation: 

  • Arrogance: People are too confident in the current way they are doing things.
  • Identity: People see themselves one dimensionally and are unwilling to grow or change, or they see themself as part of a group or time period of a particular method.
  • Lack of Curiosity and Unwillingness to Learn: People are not curious about new methods and avoid learning and applying new ways.
  • Fear of Loss of Control: People have too strong of a desire to be in control and are not willing to accept a period of time of not being the expert or in control. True innovation needs an environment where its okay for everything to not be worked out and ideas can be adjusted and adapted.
  • Lack of Empathy: People are unable to see other people’s needs for innovation and sadly focus on only their own need for continuity and order. People fail to see how a new idea or method would help others and rather focus on how this would be hard for them.
  • Competing Priorities: Most often innovative ideas get reshuffled to competing priorities due to interest, training, time, investment, or a lack of understanding. One person’s idea in a group is given more weight and value than a new, innovative idea. Many organizations will spend money in certain known and proven areas and avoid investing in new, unknown areas, only to spend more later trying to catch up with those that went first. Most organizations and individuals just don’t want to take the time to do things a different way. It takes time to change. It takes leadership.

The obstacles outlined above illustrate why the icons of innovation throughout history were all viewed as mavericks and rebels. They had to be. Steve Jobs, Nikola Tesla, Elon Musk, and others all broke away from the bureaucracy of how things are typically accomplished within organizations because they realized if they did not their innovative ideas would perish.

In my book, Along Came a Leader, I share six tenets of leadership. Vision is one of the six. I feel leaders need a strong vision.  The ability to see what could be is so important to leadership and acting on it allows innovation to take place.

If you are a leader of an organization or an inspiring leader, take note and avoid the six obstacles to innovation so your organization can advance and lead.

~Kelly

Kelly Croy is an author, speaker, and educator.  Send Kelly an email. • Sign-up for Kelly’s Newsletter. Listen to Kelly’s  The Wired Educator Podcast with over 219 episodes. • Kelly has written two books, Along Came a Leader a book on personal and professional leadership, and Unthink Before Bed: A Children’s Book on Mindfulness . • Follow Kelly Croy on: Facebook. •  Twitter.  •  and Instagram