Your passion will also help you become absolutely relentless in the pursuit of excellence. With a focus on professional passion, teaching is no longer about relaying the content standard…it’s about transforming lives. It’s about killing apathy. It’s about helping the next generation fulfill their potential and become successful human beings. It’s no longer about memorizing facts; it’s about inspiring greatness.
When you’re passion-filled, you also become more personally fulfilled as an educator. It’s fun and exciting to share what is uniquely “you.” Doing so makes your presentations and personal charisma almost magnetic in nature. Being in the presence of people who are engaged in fulfilling their major life purpose is almost hypnotic. There is a certain “juice,” an electricity, that emanates from those who truly love what they are doing or discussing. Others may have no particular interest in the subject at hand, but they are magically drawn to a person because of the sheer power that permeates the presentation. Passion is like an intoxicating drug but without the dangers and side effects. Use it as much as you want. Once you get a taste of it, you’ll always want to come back for more.
BIRDS, SNAKES, AND THE ART OF TEACHING
Not long ago, I was with my two kids and two dogs at a small pond in a Tierrasanta canyon when we came across a man walking his dogs and wearing binoculars around his neck. As we were sharing small talk, he suddenly stopped and whipped the binoculars up to his face and excitingly pointed out a hawk perched on top of a nearby tree. He told us the type of hawk it was, its hunting behavior, and how its feathers were specially designed for the type of flight maneuvers it needed.
I was fascinated.
Now please understand, I couldn’t care less about hawks, and I’m about as far from an outdoorsman as you will ever find. My idea of camping is a hotel room or a cruise ship cabin. So why was I drawn in by this man’s story? How did he hold my attention for thirty minutes as he discussed the entire ecosystem surrounding the pond and gave an impassioned argument for not killing rattlesnakes?
The answer is simple. This man was one hundred percent passionate about his subject. When you interact with someone who is fully engaged and filled with passion, it can be an overwhelming and unforgettable experience. There is no faking it…you can’t “Meg Ryan” that type of passion! Enthusiasm, yes…passion, no. There is a type of vibration that seems to emanate from people who are fulfilling their definite major purpose in life, and it is contagious. I still don’t particularly care about the ten types of birds he told me to watch for, but I would listen to him talk about them any day of the week. My kids talked about the man the entire way home.
People are drawn in and love to be around those who are passionate about their lives.
It doesn’t matter what subject you teach. You can become totally engaging to your audience if they can feel your passion and love for what you are doing. You will draw students in as if by some magnetic force. Passion is all about being on fire in front of your class. I’m fond of the quote, “Light yourself on fire with enthusiasm and people will come from miles around just to watch you burn!”
This is yet another reason a “cookie cutter” approach to teaching will never be the most effective. What gets me fired up and passionate in the classroom, and therefore more effective, might not be the answer for my colleague down the hall. Resist any movement that attempts to clone teachers and lessons and instead rejoice in the fact that it is your individuality and uniqueness that will always lead you to become the most effective teacher that you can be.
Light yourself on fire with passion…and don’t worry if it’s not a controlled burn.
You’re about to learn the #1, top secret way to become a dramatically better lover!
I have your attention now, don’t I?
Right now, the people reading this can be split into two groups… men and women. The men are thinking, “I definitely don’t need this section.” The women are thinking, “I sure hope the men are paying attention to this section!” (I should mention that my wife is probably thinking, “What the heck is he doing thinking he can teach this subject?”)
In the famous science-fiction book, Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein, there is a female character who has had an “encounter” with a man by the name of Mike. It was a completely overwhelming experience; one she has a great deal of difficulty putting into words. When asked about it by another person, she feels frustrated at her inability to accurately describe her feelings. Finally, she says, “When Mike’s kissing you, he isn’t doing anything else. You’re his whole universe.” In other words, the whole rest of the world disappeared and every single cell, fiber, muscle, and thought was fully immersed in the moment.
The secret to becoming a better lover—and a better teacher—is total immersion. Your ability to completely give yourself up to the moment and fully “be” with your students is an awesome and unmistakably powerful technique. I would love for one of my students to be talking with a peer about what it is like to be in my class on a daily basis and for that student to say, “When he’s teaching you, he isn’t doing anything else!” Students can feel it when you are truly present.
As easy as it is to sense immersion, students can also immediately sense when we aren’t all there. We all know when we are dealing with people who are distracted or are in some way dividing their attention. Whether it is a cashier, your doctor, a friend, or anyone else, a lack of full engagement can be annoying. It’s incredibly frustrating to interact with a person who is not immersed and fully invested in that interaction. A lack of immersion in the present sends a clear, although unspoken, message that this moment is somehow less important and not significant enough to be worth undivided attention.
Here’s one way to illustrate immersion. If you are out on the pool deck and someone asks you to focus on the swimming pool, what does that mean? Would you go stand at the side and stare at it? Would you climb into the lifeguard tower and watch from above? Focus is, after all, supposed to be a powerful and effective strategy. Now compare the concept of focus with the next scenario that defines immersion. You’re on the pool deck and someone tells you to immerse yourself in the swimming pool. What would this look like? What is implied when someone asks you to immerse yourself in a pool? You’re wet! You’re in the water! You’re either swimming or you’re drowning. It is a qualitatively different experience.
I can walk by the open door of a classroom and tell you after a couple of minutes whether the teacher is a lifeguard or a swimmer. A lifeguard sits above the action and supervises the pool deck. Although he or she is focused, there is a distinct sense of separateness both physically and mentally. In contrast, a swimmer is out participating and an integral part of the action.
Last summer, my son Hayden took swim lessons at the local YMCA two days a week. On Tuesdays, he had a male coach who stood at the side of the pool and gave instructions as he returned after each lap. On Thursdays, he had a female instructor who was in the pool with Hayden. She physically lifted his arms and showed him the proper strokes. She would take his chin and move his head to the side to demonstrate how far out of the water he should come to take a breath. He learned more on one or two Thursdays than he did on all of the Tuesdays put together.
It’s far more powerful to “swim” with your students. They need the benefit of your complete immersion. Now, it is important to point out that my son was learning the strokes for the first time as opposed to practicing and perfecting strokes that he had already learned. To be clear, I’m not suggesting that a competitive swim coach needs to be in the water with