The stubbornness to keep showing up

Anyone who has ever been a teacher can most certainly agree with me that while teaching can be both a noble and inspiring work to do; it can also be one of the most exasperating at times.

Consider the excitement of heading to a class to share a new concept or theory or idea only to find out only half the number of students who signed up for the course is present.

It happens. You don’t always know why. Maybe they had personal or financial issues, or they found the same course online with elearners or another institution. Sometimes it can be shocking, how many students drop out after signing up.

But there is always a core group of five or six students who will be there consistently, who will put in the effort, do the work and hand it in on time.   They may not always be the smartest, but statistics show that they are the ones who will make it to graduation day.

In a world of get-rich-quick schemes where the lottery draw gets more airtime than any other ad campaign, a lot of people these days would rather try their hands on something that delivers a fast buck.

Only a very few people are willing to invest the time, money and energy to produce the kind of work that makes us believe geniuses exist in our midst.

But those who have persevered all these years doing the work that they love or the work that will feed the children know that they have to keep doing it because of what’s at stake.  Even when they feel like giving up at times.

There is no such thing as an overnight success.  The most successful people who achieve instant fame and recognition for one piece of art, a book, an idea or a marketing advice know that it was the constant production of countless shitty projects in the past that got them to where they are now.  Those works will never see the light of day, but they were necessary in completing that journey.

The artist knows this story all too well.  It is putting the brush to the canvas, or notes to the lyrics and words on that blank page even when the muse is off somewhere else in Harry Potter land.

It is showing up for your job or an appointment on days you’d rather be somewhere else because you want to honor your agreements.

It is staying in a marriage and trying to work things out when the going gets rough because you’ve committed yourself to it.  Because it’s not always about you anymore.   It is about those little lives whose very existence and the very person they will become is dependent on your decision to save or abandon their only known source of comfort and stability.

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the bestselling book Eat, Pray, Lovesaid it best in her powerful and inspiring speech on nurturing one’s creativity as an artist; to just keep on doing the work even when it is at times daunting, and to continue showing up for your piece in it:

“Ole to you nonetheless, just for having the sheer human love and the stubbornness to keep showing up.”