Last night I dreamed that I was teaching a random group of former students and had not adequately prepared. I managed to make it through the most of the lesson, until it was time to give homework, only to discover I couldn't find the assignment I had prepared and in my dream, this was a source of huge stress! I woke up feeling rather anxious and then reminded myself that the students probably would not have been so terribly upset about this predicament.
The dream seems to indicate that at least subconsciously, I'm aware I have quite a bit of work to do before the academic term begins! In order to be successful as both a teacher and performer, I need to be well prepared. Unfortunately, preparation requires planning on my part, and that has never been something I enjoy, so this morning, I started making a to-do list, along with deadlines and a breakdown of tasks. Since planning an entire undergraduate course from scratch is a daunting task, it helps if I divide up the work into more manageable sections.
In addition, today I was contemplating some long term goals that
have somehow fallen by the wayside and I realized, if I'm going to
achieve them, I will have to devote some attention in that direction.
When I was in grad school, a teacher of mine constantly told us, "success in the music world is really only 20% talent. The rest is sheer hard work." He was right -- the people from my class still working in music today are those who always came to rehearsal with every note learned. This doesn't only apply to music either. Growing up, I remember watching my brothers prepare for tennis tournaments. Not only did they train constantly, they also adhered to a proper diet and sleep schedule. In their spare time, they created strategies or tried to learn about their opponent, just to have an extra edge. They were determined to win.
Keep dreaming big and remember -- preparation really is the key to success!
No comments:
Post a Comment