Episode 79: Achieving work-life balance - Danny Sgro

Podcast on Spotify

Show Notes

Danny Sgro's LinkedIn profile states that he is an applications expert, an applied learning specialist and a grant writer. He does public speaking and dabbles in some art on the creative side. However, teaching is his primary profession at the moment. He is now the father of two children.

Work should be fun and easy for a good work-life balance, on a Venn diagram, reason, purpose and motivation with a career in the middle.

Reason: support my family

Purpose: teach, inspire and be relational with my students and colleagues

Motivation: Advance and get experience in a safe and fun environment.

Career has become increasingly universal. Quite often, it's a couple sharing career and life. There is still disparity but its become more even.

There seem to be a lot of concerns in modern life around mental and emotional health + career, family/relationships, money and progression.

Increasingly his teaching is focused on applied learning and vocational work with 15 to 18 year old. At his current age of 38, he feels more qualified to mentor and teaches young people than he did in his 20s.

He loves teaching because he likes to help people. 

Danny's purpose of teaching, inspiring and being relational with my students and colleagues is directly related to using his talents around education and creativity.

The more he helps people, the happier he becomes.

It is not common for people to have a clear individual purpose or "Why". Sites like LinkedIn tend to help them mask this or avoid clarity around a "Why".

Motivation is the relational and creative component of his job. He applies for grants and sources funds, allowing him to provide experiences for his students. He feels he is making a difference in his students and work community's lives.

Significant changes in Danny's life in the last two years include having two children. Other notable changes include mainstreaming hybrid meetings (Face to Face and zoom simultaneously) and asynchronous learning (learning in your own time).

He feels he has adapted well to the required changes, but the people he is concerned about are 18-year-olds who have spent the last few years in isolation. They have a lot of anxieties. Help and support for these young people are hard to obtain. How do we do things socially now? That is the challenge in supporting his students.

Young people are stuck on mobile devices and social media. Knowledge retention is not so necessary anymore because information is Googled. Giving students real-world experience and exposure is more important than memorising facts.

In summary:

·       Reason: personal relationships

·       Purpose: what am I trying to do in the world, and what impact?

·       Motivation: creativity in life and work – for others, it's different.

·       Getting the balance can be difficult