December 10, 2004

• Topic: history of the Iraq war

  
  

  Well…it is my firm belief that xanga, and any other non-traditional learning community, must continue its efforts to share ideas, resources, to ask questions, and provide our best answers.

  
  

  In that light…here’s an analysis I’ve discoverd from the cato institute. http://www.cato.org/

  
  

  http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa502.pdf

  
  

  My initial observations are that this is a non-partisan institute.  Their values are stated as “individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and peace.”  I like organizations such as this that cross over between the two political worlds (i haven’t looked into them enough to say I outright support their views).  This article gives a stern criticism of Bush’s Iraq war, while another part of the institute supports his agenda to privatize social security.  The article uses little rhetoric, and instead, focusses on documentation of research, knowledge of opposing viewpoints, and an attempt to apply clear logic to reasoning.  Most of what is written is not new, but I find it to be the clearest and most coherent argument against Bush’s war in Iraq.

  
  

  Oh…and I just had my first coaching session.  Here’s the site:
  http://www.next-step-coach.com/default.asp

  
  

  Coaching is not therapy or consulting…it’s something successful people use to improve themselves, and to become more efficient.  The 45min. session I had focussed on my goals…but what was powerful, was really narrowing and honing my goals.  We all have goals, but they’re so often out of focus.  The most important goal I realized I want to work towards to in the next 3-6 months, is to have my writing published in an educational magazine or journal.  What was good about this coaching session, was that it was unnatural.  It got me to talk about myself, my goals, my life.  She had me talk about how it would feel to achieve my goal, and this had a real impact of elevating the importance of that goal to me.  What was most effective was having my coach simply re-state the things I said, and then asked if it sounded accurate?  Having a real person re-affirm my goals, was important to me.  Most support for my goals has been sporadic and fluffy at best, here it was clear and articulate.    

  
  

  I feel like there’s no stigma attached to coaching.  You’re just having someone help you become more successful.  Attach all the stigmas you want, if it helps me get more out of life.  In addition, it’s not just fluff.  Simply by partaking in a coaching session, I found myself to be taking such fluffy things as goal setting, a lot more seriously.  And…while I believe a good friend or parent can do what a coach does, the reality is, this doesn’t always happen.  For 45min. I got to have someone focus entirely on me, and not feel selfish about that because that’s her job. 

  
  

  So…the one thing  I am left with after my first coaching session (it was complimentary, if i get a part-time job, i may do the previously unthinkable and pay for this kind of service) is that I am committed to writing a 750 word essay about education.  This committment is certainly strenghthened because of my coaching session, otherwise, I’d have good reason to put it off.  This essay will possibly be posted online on the New York Times college section, as I spoke to the woman yesturday who runs that, and she’s expecting me to write.  Next…i need to get my essay out to publications, and I can sense already I’ll need some help focussing on getting that done, so I may end up finding a way to finance further coaching (and it’s not something you become dependant on, after about 3-months, you enough about the coaching structure to apply it to anything), because I know I’m likely to lose site of what is a dream for me of having my writing published without that added focus.

  • 2:43 pm
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