My new beginning is taking the courage to step away from the familiar and to risk failure. I often find myself watching stuff and putting off what I should be doing. I feel a resistance against making a start, making decisions, forming systems and developing a prototype. Seth Godin explains it thus: “Learning how to make things turns you from a spectator into a participant, from someone at the mercy of the system to someone who is helping to run the system. Learning how to make gives you the guts to make more, to fail more often, to get better at making…The spectators are the ones who paid to watch, but it’s the players on the field who are truly alive.”
When I started writing up my ideas for next year and making decisions I started to feel really good. Resistance was being put behind me and I started to break through the passive state that was holding me back. I was alive and moving forward.
I can see that this passivity easily besets my students who delight in watching YouTube videos and reading all the Facebook statuses from their friends. They are locked up in the safety zone of being a spectator. Boredom put aside for a moment.
I know what it is like to be busy but not productive. The internet is a candy store for the eyes. A trap that can only be avoided by doing the work. Doing to learn and learning to do.