Explore Your Creative Genius As A Teacher.

Teachers are believed to take pleasure in shopping at the dollar store for supplies, creating cute worksheets on the computer, crafting for classrooms, being nerdy, reading tons of books and living in libraries, grading papers on a Saturday evening while watching an educational documentary, or other crazy things. And while many teachers do this and enjoy it, there are many educators who want to have nothing to do with school once the final period bell rings and they go home.

Whatever side you are on, you should not feel guilty about that but feel comfortable about doing what gives you joy. Having said that, I do believe being sucked into the career and feeling you owe more time, more passion and more dedication to your job is an extreme end.

Teachers who don’t take grading home are still amazing teachers. Teachers whose classes are not decorated for a Pinterest post are still rocking it. Teachers who create a Harry Potter themed units and make lessons an adventure are geniuses. The question is: do you feel fulfilled and satisfied? Do you genuinely enjoy your days? Is this what you always wanted to do and are ready to do for the rest of your life? Whatever the answer is – yes or no – the next step is to determine what the rest of your life should look like, and it’s possible to do that by exploring your creative genius.

Creativity and your artistic expression are the keys to discovering your purpose in life. It’s the only way to find your right path and put things in perspective. Exploring your creative genius will inevitably alter your life the way you envision it.

Many people go to education because it’s stable, offers a good salary, health insurance, pension. I don’t judge them. I am one of them. Let’s be honest, if the education filed were based on volunteering and being a good Samaritan, the line of people to this profession would be short if nothing at all. Being a teacher contributes to your well-being proportionally to what it enhances negatively. It provides financial stability, a possibility of pension, medical benefits, but it also causes anxiety, fear, exhaustion, overwhelm, overwork, headaches and sometimes sleepless nights. Not all that shines is gold.

While you do go through the process of adjusting to this profession physically and emotionally at the expense of taking a couple of year off your lifespan, you are indeed granted with some gifts, like interaction with students, victories in your classroom, the possibility of changing lives and being a mentor, a chance to become a better person and give inspiration to kids who need you most. Teaching is a two-sided creature. You cannot rip the benefits if you are not ready to accept the downsides.

But whenever you are in your educational career, it’s still so tremendously crucial not to forget about who you are and things that ignite you. Exploration of your creative genius, of what you genuinely love and passionate about will give you the answer to some important questions: what is my path in life? Where do I want to be every day of my life, and what do I want to work on?

Becoming a teacher gave me numerous opportunities to explore my creative genius and not only. I acquired some valuable skills and attributes, like patience, asking proper questions, humility, the ability to recognize every single person’s value and talent in this world. It also gave me insights on what I don’t want and what I want to do for the rest of my life.

I think I was able to do that thanks to continually observing other colleagues, students, listening to their stories and telling mine, challenging myself in things that I don’t feel comfortable about.

Teaching can be a great medium of exposing the real you to people and to yourself. It tests you regularly by emerging you into the zone of discomfort. It can be a great facilitator of your growth or failure. That’s why if you are a teacher, it’s time to start noticing how you are changing, whether you are growing or not, whether this environment stagnates or helps your growth as an individual. I do believe teaching is a great test that will yield one result – it will give you the answer to the question what you want to do in life for the rest of your life.

Although this post is about teaching and for teachers, exploring creative genius is a must for many other people of many trades. It’s a part of exploring who you are, what your time is worth, what makes you happy and what brings you down, how you can contribute to this world and what your role in it.

So how can you do this? It’s simple. Take a piece of paper and graph two columns: your interests/passions and your expertise. Then, find overlapping areas, and this will be your zone of genius that you need to explore until you find the one that seems like your destiny. I know it sounds easy, maybe even dumb, but it worked for many successful people. You will only embrace the gift of your life once you discover your mission in this world. All other miracles will start happening while you are working on your zone of genius.

Good luck!

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