I really had to push my students this week. I’m teaching my 4th and 5th graders how to draw realistically, from life. One group is learning to draw different kinds of cactus in pots, the other is learning how to draw flowers in a vase.
All week long I’ve been hearing, “it’s too hard, I can’t do it.” and my response is always the same: I know it’s challenging, do it anyway. If you never push yourself to try something that makes you uncomfortable, you’ll never grow, never learn, never get better. You’ll stay exactly the same.
It’s certainly more comfortable to stay the same, but we can’t always stay 4th graders, or teenagers, or newlyweds, or 30 somethings. We age, we grow, and we change. Change is the only constant, and hopefully we change for the better as we grow.
Honestly, I’m not a fan of this part of my job, but it’s one of the most essential aspects of this job. Pushing someone to do something they really don’t want to do is tough, but this is what teachers do everyday. Because we KNOW that on the other side of that discomfort is solid, positive growth.
Standing by their side through the growing pains brings me right back to going through m own growing pains. It hurts, it’s hard, and you have to do it anyway. This is all part of the glorious nature of being human.
You have to keep going, keep getting better, keep doing the things that are just outside of your comfort zone, because that’s how we keep getting better.
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