I began to find myself in that class. I found the person I didn’t even realize had gotten lost along the way, who had become too scared of her own shadow to dare try and fail and who could only focus on pleasing and achieving, which is a death sentence for any form of creativity.
n me some …for an outstanding teacher: passion. Instead, my motivations came from a place of fear and fantasy. I had this idyllic projection of how teaching would instantly confer upon me some safe, unimpeachable status in the world while simultaneously protecting me: from ever having to face another editor, another deadline, another rejection. No more creative pain or risk. Such a self-serving M.O. does not exactly Teacher of the Year make.)
… To do so is fairly easy in principle, but more difficult in practice. Yet it is sure worth trying. The first step is to develop the habit of doing whatever needs to be done with concentrated attention, with skill rather than inertia. Even the most routine tasks, like washing dishes, dressing, or mowing the lawn become more rewarding if we approach them with the care it would take to make a work of art. The next step is to transfer some psychic energy each day from tasks that we don’t like doing, or f…