Hi, I'm Monica Packer, and you're listening to About Progress, where we are about progress

make practical.

Excuse the Under the weather voice today.

When I was a middle school teacher, I had one of the best and also worst ideas ever

when I was trying to help my eighth graders understand metaphors.

They just were not getting it. So I thought maybe a very current and very popular pop song would help them finally understand this concept and I chose Katie Perry's

Firework. I'll save you from sinking the course but if you can remember it baby

you're a Firework come on let your colors burst I heard that chorus so many times and it was the

best idea in many ways because they finally got the concept and it was the worst idea because now that song has been permanently

ruined for life. I cannot hear it and not immediately be transported back to my dusty classroom.

I worked so hard to make inviting. I hear those teenage

voices filtering all around me. They're B.O. Laced with the cafeteria food from

lunch in the quad just outside my classroom. I swear that my heart rate even speeds up when I hear the song.

It's as if I know I have stacks of creating and lessons to plan and very soon.

Metaphores are so powerful, just like music, right? Not just figuratively, but also literally. The way we speak about ourselves and our world is so reflective of the beliefs that we carry and the truths that we prize.

Just a few examples.

You're a machine.

I really need to recharge. This is my season. You can feel the impact these

metaphors carry. They're not just words. Today our guest Joy Marie Clarkson

wants you to better notice the words that you use, especially with

your metaphors, and how switching them to ones that encourage flourishing over productivity matters.

If you're tired of your constant cycles of updating,

...