For years I took things personally. When I let down my friends, for whatever reason, I took it hard. When people ignored my advice, it hurt. And, of course, in the classroom there were times I sometimes questioned my own skills when students either left or didn’t join. Had I let myself down? Was I doing something wrong? So often when things don’t go as planned we begin to second guess ourselves. We start to wonder if it was our fault. But the truth is there are times when no matter what we do, how much we prepare, or what we study that things don’t go the way we planned them. It’s easy to lose faith in our own ability, or that what we are doing isn’t working but we seem to have become a society that expects miracles, or close to them. We want instantaneous results. People want to lose weight, become rich or master a language in less time than it takes to read a book. The things we all dream of take time, it seems that it’s one of the way things work here. We hear about the overnight successes but very few of them actually are. They have paid their dues just like the rest of us.
I realized that it’s not my job to help everyone, because not everyone wants to be saved. But each time a student walks through the door of Smith’s 英会話 Hirakata I have one simple goal, to give the best lesson I can. Then it’s up to them to do their part. Teachers teach, students learn. It’s not an either/or question, it’s how things work.
Hopefully with age I’ve gained wisdom. I have learnt that life is too short to dwell on the past and wonder about what might have been, instead I choose to focus on what I can do now for tomorrow. I try not to take things personally and understand that there are things out there beyond my control. As long as I do my best, I sleep well knowing that I gave it all I’ve got. That’s good advice for all of us.
Adrian
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