I recently heard that more than 80% of people spend their life, or at least the majority of their life, doing what they are second best at.
Stop and think about that for a moment.
Is that you?
Is there something you are just amazing at or totally love to do but were told to get a real job, focus on your education so you can have a profession that will pay to fall back on or some other such story?
What is the one thing you are amazing at?
If there is one thing I really don’t agree with in the educational field, it’s the use of labels.
I think labels can be detrimental for growth, for learning and for being our very best.
Labels can hinder us from growing, improving, and even succeeding in life. And I’m not talking about how much money one makes when I think of success. I’m talking about personal growth, the strengthening of character and the removal of blaming others - or labels - as a way to get by.
Labels often allow us to not take responsibility. And that’s a shame. Plus, it’s simply sad.
When I was a teacher in a classroom I was given a mentor. An older teacher, who’d been around the block a few decades and was there to give me the support I needed as a new teacher.
Or so I thought.
A little back story is needed here.
I did not plan to teach, never went to school to be a teacher nor did I have a degree in teaching.
I just made a quick decision.
Throw your hands up in the air, wave ‘em like you just don’t care.
Yes, I’m celebrating. Why? I never learned how to make quick decisions. Instead, I’m a natural analyzer and a worrier.
Oops, I want to rewrite that. I was a natural analyzer and a natural worrier. I am turning over a new leaf and words have power. So let me use my words here with the utmost care…
I was never going to be a lifer.
A lifer is a teacher who stays in the system till retirement in 30-35 years.
Yikes.
I guess a career like that, with benefits and paid holidays and tenure, felt more like a life-sentence to me than something I’d enjoy.
And when something is a life-sentence, how can you really keep doing it?
I couldn’t…
I once had a tutoring student, he was in sixth grade and man, sluggish didn’t begin to describe him. Let’s call him Billy.
Billy made it about 15 minutes into the one-on-one tutoring session, diving into his reading and writing skills, and to say it wasn’t going well would be an understatement.
He was all but underwater - mentally.
His response time was ridiculously slow.
His energy was non-existent.
His ability to think, reason and even function was, well, hindered would be a nice way to put it.
Billy was lagging and I was struggling to figure out why.
Sometimes we must look back so that we can celebrate wins that we wouldn’t otherwise bother to notice and see what improvements could have been made. I think this process of a Year-End Self-Inventory is powerful, telling and vital for my growth.
I have so much more to give than I’ve been giving. I’ve been playing small.
When I want to say “shameful” to the above comment or statement of fact, which is not a criticism of myself but a truth, I realize I have work to do on my inner game.
I think I’ll start with naming her.
This story is an excerpt taken from Jill’s coming book: How To Go From Broke To 6-Figures Teaching Kids While Making A Huge Difference. Enjoy.
I had a student who once told me, “You can’t say that to me. My dad’s a lawyer. I’ll sue you!”
My response before I could censor myself was to laugh and say, “I’m a teacher. Sue away. I don’t make anything.”
And literally, that was the honest truth. The only thing he could have, gladly, was my growing mound of student debt.
My first paid tutoring session was in my most dreaded subject...math.
And I was scared to death.
See, I had failed math my entire life AND was about to get paid to teach a high school student my worst possible subject.
I wasn't a math teacher.
I was barely a certified English teacher.
I hadn't gone to school to be a teacher and certainly didn't have any educational degrees that really qualified me to teach.
Terror Turns To Inspiration
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