Is Your Heart Ticklish?

Posted By Andy Aldrich on Jan 13, 2015 | 0 comments

I come from a long line of ticklers (that’s a little weird to write down).  Growing up it wasn’t uncommon to be tackled to the ground by a goofy uncle or cousin who would tickle you until you were about ready to pee your pants.  This wasn’t the gentle-strokes-from-a-feather kind of tickling, but instead jabs-of-the-finger-into-your-neck style.  Eventually, as we got older it subsided, until the next generation of family was old enough to participate in the rough and tumble world of tickling.

I’m finding the same to be true about the ambitions I have for the future.  Like most of us, I have hopes and ambitions for the future-especially within education.

What’s interesting is that no matter how ticklish a person might be, one can’t really tickle themselves.  It takes another person’s action to bring it forth (although I suppose a feather might do the trick).  I’m finding the same to be true about the ambitions I have for the future.  Like most of us, I have hopes and ambitions for the future-especially within education.  Of course, it’s safe to assume that as a middle level leader in education my path forward could include becoming a principal or head of school at some point.  These positions are full of opportunity, but also somewhat predictable.  Instead, it’s the crazier ideas, spurred on by conversations and dreams tickled out by others that reveal that are really exciting.

So this may be a strange way to say it, but what makes you ticklish?  How do you help tickle the hearts of others…or your students?  What crazy ambition lays just under the surface that beckons to be coaxed/tickled out by others?

What makes you ticklish?