2. (Commitment + detachment) > Passion
A few of my closest friends have been Teach For India Fellows (teachers) at some point. They share a few characteristics that I find inspiring:
- Commitment
- Calmness / detachment
- Honesty
- Grit
Commitment and detachment, to me, have historically been opposites. When I was involved in the field of education, I was rarely, if ever, calm / detached. Many times, I worried quietly or planned anxiously. I berated myself when I wasted time or made a poor decision. My verbiage included now-laughable phrases like, “Doesn’t matter how I feel” and “We need to be more desperate.”
My only answer to any negative outcome was to worry more, plan more, and execute with more ferocity. Was it passion? Sure. But what passion adds is force, not direction. In fact, I wish I had been able to rein in my energy at times, get away from the details and the bustle, and think about the bigger picture more calmly. I would have focused more on the morale of my team members. Scaling doesn’t happen when people aren’t happy.
My teacher-friends were different. Faced with an almost-impossible task of getting disadvantaged kids to the same educational level as privileged kids, they went through the trough of disillusionment. But they bounced back with a mentality that doesn’t let disappointment in easily. They stuck to a plan; they took the challenge on one class session at a time. When a student didn’t show any improvement, they skipped disappointment and just thought about the ‘why’ and ‘what else can we try’. In short, they were sufficiently detached.
While they were committed to the journey, they didn’t let every bump in the road bring into question the point of the journey. They were honest about the positives and negatives, and didn’t worry much about being outwardly optimistic. This detachment helped them keep going, one class at a time.
