Don’t Worry, Be Happy- Robert Dunlop’s P3
- Noa Daniel
- Jun 25, 2019
- 5 min read
Robert Dunlop is a teacher, speaker, and writer who has a passion for helping other educators love their careers. His work with thousands of teachers, principals and support staff has given him insight into the importance of happiness in education. He believes that all students deserve to be surrounded by educators who are passionate and love coming to school each day. To help make this a reality, Rob has made it his mission to help educators make happiness and well-being a priority.
When asked how he felt about being on the show, Rob answered, “Amazing!” It turns out that is always his answer as it’s a strategy to help ensure his sunny disposition. This began over four years ago when he met a teacher via email that he had inferred was much younger due to her youthful exuberance towards the teaching profession. He was shocked when he met Wendy face to face, and she was in her 28th year of teaching. “I was picturing someone with that much zest for teaching to be a lot younger." By the end of their time, he had a new aspiration for his teaching horizon, and Rob began to deeply think about motivation in education. He realized that what he was most drawn to in that teacher's enthusiasm was her happiness. “One day, I woke up, and I had an entire book in my head.” He called it Start Strong, Finish Strong. That propelled him to read more into motivation in education, and he ended up being particularly drawn to positive psychology and happiness. Happiness, as our guest shared, is the missing piece because teachers who love their jobs and feel happy about them impact students.Rob never tried to publish the first book, but he wrote another.
Rob is only 30 pages from being done his second book called S.T.R.I.V.E. for Happiness in Education. The acronym stands for Students, Team, Routine, Innovate, Versatility and Extraordinary. In so many ways, his whiteboard full of ideas was perfectly consolidated through this acronym. “The book is based on a lot of feedback from my PLN...there are a tonne of ideas about how to find more happiness in education”. Rob would immerse himself and “live” each part of the book as he wrote it. Rob truly feels that the routines and habits that he’s put in place have helped him walk the talk. The night before our recording, he got some very exciting news. EduMatch Publishing agreed to publish Rob’s book, so he hopes to have it in print by early next year. He’s excited to help teachers find ways to discover more happiness in their day-to-day work.
When preparing for his appearance on the P3, Rob was excited because he had heard many of his friends on previous episodes. He said that he was shocked listening to shows with Lee Martin and Michael Drezek because it gave him a different insight into them even though he knew them so well. Rob also noted that he wasn’t the typical music fan saying, ”I’ve always had a weird relationship with music. I love it... I tend to listen to the same songs repeatedly, over and over again, for a period of time.” If he finds a song to go with a moment, that one song is all he needs, so he plays it back, again and again, always highlighting the positive.
Rob chose a nostalgic song that reflected an important life discovery. He was a personal trainer and then, when he graduated as a teacher, he had an offer to become a personal trainer for a wealthy man and travel around the world. While he was “living the life”, something was missing. “This song speaks to me with the line I took a walk around the world to ease my troubled mind. Rob discovered his sense of meaning and purpose in the contrast between a red carpet event that he was about to attend and his parents sharing that their evening would be consisting of bowling with his sister. “It broke me.” He realized that having people around you that you love was more important than money and privilege. That prompted him to return home and build his life. He found his wife, and they started their family. By taking a walk around the world, Robert was able to discover what he really treasured, and he feels so lucky to be able to experience that happiness and ability to enjoy his life. This song helps him remember his journey home. Here is Kryptonite by 3 Doors Down:
Rob’s identity song is an acoustic tune from the lead singer of Hootie and the Blowfish. “I find his song writing so positive in nature” This song summarizes how he felt growing up, surrounded by people who he perceived to be awesome at so many things, which felt like a blow to his self esteem. Then, he learned that he wasn’t competing with other people and that he should follow passions. His friend, John, got him into weightlifting which helped him become more confident and focus on the things he loved. “One of the biggest reasons I love this song is because there is a line in the song that goes No one believed in me as much as mom.” Rob went on to speak so fondly and reverently about his mother and then added statements about his funny, kind and caring father as well as his tremendous sister who have always been there for him. “When I look back...What I had were three people that loved me every single day, that loved me unconditionally, that boosted me up and supported me… It took me a little while to realize that.” So many of the lyrics in this song tell his story. Here is So I Sang by Darius Rucker
Rob’s pick-me-up song came from one of this favourite artist’s solo albums. When he first bought the album, he listened to this song over and over again. He was drawn in by the line, Love; that’s how we got good. Discovering those things that you love and cultivating that is not about external things but, instead, about the way everything can connect back to happiness. Those are the things that Rob spends time on. When this great Canadian singer and songwriter died, it deeply affected our guest, but this song continues to help Rob focus on those things about which he feels passionate. Here is Love or Money from Gord Downie:
If you want to learn more about Robert Dunlop, you can follow him on Twitter. He has a website called MotivatEDU where he’s going to begin blogging, once he’s done writing the book. He has presented at many conferences including this Ignite at the 2017 Bring IT Together (BITT).You can also find him on LinkedIn. His parting words on the show were, “Keep working on being happy; it’s so important.”
Rob Dunlop Ignite 2019 - DIS is Our Opportunity
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