A week of learning, thinking and walking...

For the last five days I've felt extremely lucky to be able to do three things:

1. Learn

2. Think 

3. Walk 

You might be saying to yourself: Wait a minute, we do these things everyday, what's so special about it? And it's true, normally we do engage in learning, thinking and walking almost every day. However, for the last five days I've learnt, thought and walked more than I normally do on an average day, both in terms of quantity and quality. 

Learning has been the major theme of the last few days. I've spent the last week in New York attending a training for new staff in UNICEF. The training is supposed to give participants an insight into the organization and help newcomers to decide if they want to strive for a professional career within the UN or not. That alone was an interesting objective from my perspective. The fact that the organization spends a lot of effort in making sure their young professionals become insightful, engaged and fully dedicated is a sign of a true learning organization. A part from all the 'learning about UNICEF' and practical type of work we also spent good amount of time talking to people that have worked for UNICEF for a longer or shorter period of time. This was in fact, what I valued the most from the week long workshop. Real discussions with real people who've had to make difficult work/life decisions during their careers. An international career calls for such decisions and very often it is only possible if you are lucky enough to have a super understanding and flexible spouse. As this is my first year of working as a global civil servant I'm still struggling with the idea of pursuing a career which entails a lifestyle of constant moving, adapting to difficult environment and stressful and long working hours. However, this week has also inspired me more than ever before to work for the beautiful and amazing mandate UNICEF has. The people I talked to and the stories they told made me thankful and happy to be able to contribute to children's well-being, protection and development where it is most needed.

Thinking about all of the above has been the hardest part of this week. I've learnt that during an average day in UNICEF Malawi I actually do not think that much. I do not have the time nor the energy to spend in true and meaningful thinking. This is because true thinking includes reflecting upon and analyzing your thoughts. I've quite often started this process during my time in Malawi but I have not been able to take the crucial steps between an initial though or idea to some sort of analysis and reflection. The lack of time and space to think seriously about the future; my role as a mother, wife, professional, the work/life balance and the dreams and aspirations of my family has left me with a lot of unanswered questions and doubts. Doubting yourself, your existence and purpose in life is probably the worst thing a person can do to him or herself. Therefore, this week has been very helpful in terms of clarifying some of my quite scattered and unattended thoughts about the future. First of all I realized that being away from my family for only two weeks is probably the hardest thing that I've done. It made me realize that they have to come first despite all my willingness to excel as a professional. At the same time conversations with people within the organization made me realize how important it is to always be true to yourself. This is not only a cliche but actually reflects in actively seeking for the work that makes you personally and truly happy. I really want to believe that by not compromising too much for the work that you choose to do will ultimately come back to you in the form of a successful career. 

Walking to and from the UNICEF building every day for five days, along with walks around the city itself, has provided me with time, space and inspirational environment to think about all of the above. Just a 10 minutes walk in the hallways of the UN building, passing people dressed in amazingly multicultural and authentic manner was in itself a walk full of inspiration and admiration. I completely love the idea of being surrounded with people from all around the world, with unique cultural backgrounds, expressed equally in their appearance and experiences. The diversity actually reminded me of the importance of my work as an educator who believes in the philosophy and beauty of global citizenship.

Að læra í starfi.... Takk Elfa fyrir innblástur og kraft!

Það er deginum ljósara að bloggið mitt líður fyrir tilkomu Facebook, Instagram og annarra samfélagsmiðla. Reyndar hef ég sjaldan verið jafn lítið viðriðin netnotkun eins og undanfarna sex mánuði. Enda nóg annað að gera, upplifa, reyna og fást við. Vinnudagurinn er miklu mun lengri og þar af leiðandi er allt umfram og afgangs nýtt í það sem mestu máli skiptir í lífinu: knús, kossa, bóklestur og ferðalög.  

Mér hefur lærst að vinnan verður ekki rólegri. Nú, hálfu ári eftir að ég byrjaði að vinna fyrir UNICEF geri ég mér ekki lengur vonir um að eiga dag í vinnunni þar sem ekki eru að minnsta kosti eitt til tvö neyðartilfelli, þrír krísufundir, eitt óvænt og algjörlega óskiljanlegt atvik, mál sem þarf að leysa á innan við fimm mínútum, krefjandi samstarfsaðilar, óútreinkanleg ríkisstjórn, endalausir tölvupóstar og símhringingar. Yfirmenn sem krefjast hins ómögulega og menntamálamaráðuneyti sem skiptir um skoðun eins og nærbuxur. 

Ég er líka búin að læra meira á hálfu ári en ég hef gert í öllum skóla til samans (og varði ófáum árum í skóla... og er ekki hætt enn). Ég fékk að skygnast inn í hugrakkt og einstakt meistaraverkefni svilkonu minnar um daginn sem minnti mig rækilega á hversu mikilvægt það er að skoða sjálfan sig í starfi. Síðastliðið hálft ár hefur reynst mér ansi góð naflaskoðun. Óhjákvæmilega hef ég þurft að endurmeta sjálfan mig, hæfni mína og getu. Viðbrögð mín og venjur. Það hefur ekki verið auðvelt. En ef það hefði verið auðvelt væri ég ekki að læra. Ég segi nemendum mínum hikstalaust að ef þeim finnist námsefnið ekki ögn erfitt, krefjandi og óskiljanlegt séu þau ekki að læra... Ef að samvinnan gangi ekki örlítið brösulega og verkefnin virðast óyfirstíganleg... þá er þetta ekki þess virði. Þegar við svitnum hæfilega, botnum ekki alveg í hlutunum og þurfum að hafa okkur við til þess að ná árangri - þá erum við að læra, þroskast og eflast. 

En það er líka mikilvægt að ná andanum inn á milli, fá tækifæri til að setjast niður, líta til baka og ígrunda. Vega og meta hvert reynslan hefur leitt okkur. Er ég færari, sterkari og hæfari? Tek ég betri ákvarðanir, er ég sterkari samstarfsaðili, hef ég breiðari þekkingu og get ég beitt þessari þekkingu á sem bestan hátt? 

Hvað er það í þínu starfi sem þroskar þig, gefur þér kraft og fær þig til að vilja gera betur?