juggling four balls
I made a tough decision last night not to teach for Regent University this fall. It's agonizing because I love to teach and who doesn't like a little extra income or alot of extra income for that matter :) But I made the decision for three reasons:
1) I don't want money to be a motivating factor in where I invest my time and energy, and in all honesty, money was too much of the motivation. When I took the paycheck out of the equation I wasn't as excited about teaching. That revealed to me that I probably wouldn't be teaching for the right reasons. I want to do things for intrinsic reasons not extrinsic reasons.
2) I felt like the student base was outside my "niche." I love undergrads, but I feel like I'm more passionate about pastors and church planters who are already in the game. We definitely need people who shape the worldviews of undergrads. That's vital. It's just not my niche. If I teach again I think I'd want it to be with grad students who are doing school and ministry at the same time because what you teach finds immediate application. Not as much is lost in translation.
3) You can only juggle so many balls at the same time. I can juggle three balls, but if you add a fourth I'll drop all of them :) That's how I feel right now. I'd be bored if I wasn't juggling three balls! But Regent was a fourth ball that probably would have caused me to drop all of them :)
By the way, after I made the decision it passed what I'd call the relief test. It was tough to say "no" but I felt relieved afterwards. That was a confirmation that I made the right decision.
1) I don't want money to be a motivating factor in where I invest my time and energy, and in all honesty, money was too much of the motivation. When I took the paycheck out of the equation I wasn't as excited about teaching. That revealed to me that I probably wouldn't be teaching for the right reasons. I want to do things for intrinsic reasons not extrinsic reasons.
2) I felt like the student base was outside my "niche." I love undergrads, but I feel like I'm more passionate about pastors and church planters who are already in the game. We definitely need people who shape the worldviews of undergrads. That's vital. It's just not my niche. If I teach again I think I'd want it to be with grad students who are doing school and ministry at the same time because what you teach finds immediate application. Not as much is lost in translation.
3) You can only juggle so many balls at the same time. I can juggle three balls, but if you add a fourth I'll drop all of them :) That's how I feel right now. I'd be bored if I wasn't juggling three balls! But Regent was a fourth ball that probably would have caused me to drop all of them :)
By the way, after I made the decision it passed what I'd call the relief test. It was tough to say "no" but I felt relieved afterwards. That was a confirmation that I made the right decision.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home