How Passionate Teachers Change Lives
Acknowledging The Heroes That See Us Before We Do
Teachers have always had a massive impact on me. From setting higher expectations, to showing me how to achieve them, and to overall helping me build on my abilities, teachers have created the foundation for my frame of reference through life.
Looking back, I’m touched with how much of a positive influence they have had on my education as well as how I learned to conduct myself throughout life. It brought to my attention that they truly are creating the foundation for our society.
Introduction
As children we spend a significant amount of time with our teachers, especially at a very influential age. So when a passionate and dedicated teacher sees the potential in us, it becomes a starting point to guide us in the right direction.
Having someone older or influential acknowledge the value in us, can encourage us to meet higher expectations – or at least that’s my experience. I think it stems from the concept of being seen and how important it really is. To feel positively acknowledged and valued can boost our confidence and ability in ourselves, and if it’s channeled the right way, it can encourage us to show up as our best selves.
Recognizing Hidden Potential
Passionate teachers can see us before we do. Whether our performance or knowledge are fully in alignment yet, it seems as though that when we come across the right people, they can show us parts of ourselves that we haven’t discovered yet. see the spark within us and show us how to maximize those qualities with a little bit of guidance and help.
Some teachers can accomplish even more than just acknowledging us. If we’re lucky, they know exactly how to help us push through our disadvantages and show us in the direction of maximising that potential. They see a spark, and with a bit of guidance and help, we come out the other end having bettered ourselves.
It takes a great love of people and understanding of humanity to be a great teacher, in my opinion. This is usually someone who is truly passionate about developing others into better versions of themselves. And I say this, because although we might be focused on one area of our life, perhaps those new habits and approaches can be utilised in other areas of our life as well.
In my own life the teacher that really helped me push past my insecurities was a vocal coach I had as a young adult. She helped me see past my own insecurities and allowed me the space to work without judgement, which changed my life. By helping me shift my perception, I felt moved to push forward and hone in on the skills that I was working on. I also wasn’t the only student of hers who was thriving – although she isn’t with us anymore, she was a hero to all of us.
Building Character and Discipline
Having the potential is one thing, the skills and opportunities is another. Progress requires more than just having someone see the potential in you, it also requires a lot of effort on our parts. Building skills come with a level of discipline and courage, especially if you are pushing past the threshold you’re used to.
Courage comes into play when we need to openly acknowledge where we currently are on the road to where we want to be. Sometimes practising the skills necessary can be very confrontational because we don’t always achieve the result that we’re working towards. However, if we maintain our focus and effort towards that, a great byproduct of this is result is character. In the game of achievement sometimes you win and other times you lose.
These are difficult lessons to learn at any age, but having a teacher or a mentor beside you can ease the discomfort that realisation brings. So it requires the right attitude and a little direction from our teacher/ mentor along the way. Teachers can help support us through those difficult times by helping us refocus. It depends on their approach, but many times they can give us the wake-up call we need, which is that we are not owed anything. Potential means that although the spark is there, the work still needs to be done.
Our results are a representation of our commitment to discipline, and our attitude is a representation of how we choose to overcome adversity. If we don’t quite achieve our goals yet, that does not mean that our work is lost or that those achievements won’t ever happen. Results are confrontational, but they are a measuring tool to help us navigate our way forward. With focus, it can help us adjust our aim.
Overcoming Adversity with Support
Perseverance is a key attribute to overcoming hardship. Although we can achieve this alone, there is no greater feeling than having someone with us to help us while we’re working towards our goals. It can ease our discomfort and increase our overall progress because we feel as though we have the support. Teachers can help us take responsibility and remind us to continue on our journey despite the setbacks because, as mentioned before, sometimes they see our potential before we do.
Support systems are essential if you want to progress forward. This isn’t always easy because we don’t all have the same starting points in our lives. Many of us will see others having opportunities that may not be available to us individually, but that shouldn’t discourage us from making our way. However, adversity will occur regardless of our starting points. Although it may not necessarily seem that way from the outside, when you’re in the thick of it, the achievement can mean all that much more to you because of how far you’ve come to make it here.
Achieving success is difficult because oftentimes we can experience setbacks, rejection, loss or heartbreak. With every kind of adversity, we are growing up, adjusting, and overcoming difficulty. We could not have those lessons, or even value our success, without taking those hits. However, we don’t have to do it alone. Having someone there to guide you through the motions is so valuable to have in your life. Without them, it might take us so much longer, be a means of giving up, or even prevent us from trying at all. Don’t do it alone if you don’t have to - find your people. Sometimes our teachers don’t find us, but we can find them.
Conclusion
Growth happens at different rates for all of us. It is of no use to compare ourselves to others because we haven’t all lived the same lives and have had the opportunity to learn the same lessons. But when you find someone who sees something in you, it is such a blessing to experience. Our teachers can help us overcome so much, and help us take the responsibility it requires to move through to the next level. Those lessons when well implemented, can not only stay with us for the rest of our lives but can impact other facets of our lives as well.
Teachers who are passionate and energised to nurture their student’s potential are people who know how to activate the sparks within us that show us what’s possible. They can help us develop our strengths, acknowledge our weaknesses, and keep us on track towards our goals. This also helps us develop into better human beings overall. These lessons don’t ever just apply to one area of our life but are skills that we can carry over into the other parts of our world too. The more we are encouraged to be better, we will keep doing better. If we are just as energised as they are, then we will change the world.
Finding the right teachers is important in life, but being generous with our knowledge is also important to the world. We have the power to empower one another and create an overall better world altogether. Although some of us may not qualify as a teacher, when we see someone that we can help perhaps that’s an opportunity for us to send the elevator back down. All people when they are acknowledged, valued, and heard, will provide value in some form or another to our world. Sometimes it just takes the right person to activate it.
