Recently I’ve been more focused on conquering fear; doing something despite concerns for the outcome. This has allowed me to live a more fulfilling life void of regret because facing fears is inherently not for anyone else but myself and, ultimately, even if the end result isn’t always the best, the simple action of pushing past fear to try something new is always rewarding despite failure.
I’ve been told a lot recently to think about what I can get out of a situation instead of what is being asked of me. That’s not to say someone should disregard what their boss or professor is saying, however, it’s a way of encouraging themself to customize their growth within situations in spite of the guidelines being given. Going in tandem with conquering fears, it’s more about yourself than it is about anyone else. Life as a whole is ultimately a journey of introspective self-discovery and you being capable of pulling use out of any situation will be the most beneficial learning tool in the long run.
In fact, I’d argue it’s good to be selfish sometimes. Focusing on yourself, not through nefarious means but through self preservation, is an essential part of maintaining sanity while pushing yourself to grow. Think about yourself in relation to the world and the work you do and pull what you think is valuable from it. Be selfish, especially when it comes to your own improvement.
This selfishness allows you to be intrinsically motivated and self-dedicated, finding the desire within yourself to get something done. Finding this internal passion and value while working is something that I’ve been doing throughout my education and it has allowed me to harness this intrinsic motivation for my own personal gain. As a tutor, I want to help students find their own passion within their work, even those assigned to them by others. Being able to find the value in an assignment will not only make the whole process easier for the student, but they will inevitably get much more out of the work than if they just pushed through the apathy to get it done. We as tutors have to find ways to help students get through the apathetic and adamant dislike that comes with not wanting to do an assignment and gain the transferable skill of finding value in any work they do.
Throughout my time here as a tutor I’ve worked with my fair share of students who are passionate about what they are working on, whether it’s a thesis project or an application for study abroad, there is always a different flow to sessions where the student is eager to work on something solely because they want to. In contrast, I’ve also had my fair share of students who are over it, who don’t want to work on their assignments and are here as a stepping stone to push through that apathy. Which is a completely understandable mindset that can be a bit ambitious to address in a singular appointment. But I think ultimately what I want to help students see is that anything, whether deemed as useful or not, can be a learning experience if they allow it to be. I took a creative writing class last semester and read a lot about our brains, the creative process, artistic expression, and how this is prevalent in society. The “textbook” for our class was a book by Shelley Carson called Your Creative Brain that goes into the psychology of creativity and understanding what the different stages of the creative process are within your brain, which parts of that process you favor, and how you can best utilize knowing all the different parts of the creative process to produce fully flushed out creative ideas. The most important aspect of this text that I was able to take away was that everything is within my control. A poem that has stuck with me for years is Invictus by William Ernest Henley, specifically the last stanza that goes as follows: “It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.”
Holding on to this power of self when going through life is essential in getting the most out of every experience. And showing students that they have control over their own story, over their own motivations and actions, allows them to be aware of their own potential. When I leave open spaces in sessions to allow for questioning, both from me and from the student, it creates an environment of inquiry instead of isolation that can lead to this realization of power.