After last week, I think I officially finished off the dregs of my tank of “new endeavor energy”.
The start of anything new is exciting in its own right, and allows us to over-perform through sheer lack of experience and wanting to start well. We like to show off for new faces, both student and professor. Having new classes, a new school and a new lifestyle makes things immediately interesting.
All of this racks up to provide a boost of do-it-now because this-is-fun energy. We get stuff done because we thought it was important to get a good head start. We fearing that this initial energy may last forever if we just maintain momentum.
Shouldn’t it be effortless to maintain this pace and sail through to the end of the year?
Nothing can save you from losing this energy. As time moves on, things get old. Happens to us, our cat, our new laptop and to even to a new way of life (Job, school, relationship).
The settling-in period has begun. Classes aren’t new anymore. We can see assignments and exams coming due on our calendars. The excitement of shiny newness has gone away.
And I am realizing that this is good
It is good that the energy I had from all things new has passed away. It is good that I’m starting to dread the upcoming deliverables. It is good that things have begun to settle in and things which I may have glossed over last month (difficult teaching styles, a boring class, group tensions, general tiredness etc.) are now making themselves abundantly evident.
It is good because now the energy I need can come from a new place. The Will.
It’s time to rely not on newness but on desire, not on excitement but on heart, not on showing off for new faces but on hard work.
It is time to show the world what we are really made of, not just what it can expect from you at the start.