The white center of the Venn Diagram below…that’s where you want to be.
That’s where I spend almost all of my work time. Whether it’s writing music, writing words, directing ensembles, teaching lessons, designing graphics, engineering recordings, or any of the other countless work responsibilities I take care of in any given week, I find ways to have fun and work at once. I have learned that it’s the only way to make the work sustainable.
The problem is, virtually every student I’ve known in recent years has learned an unspoken message, over and over again.
Work and fun do not overlap, in the minds of so many students. Their unconscious brains think, “If I’m having fun, I’m not working. If I’m working, I’m not having fun.”
That’s hard for a number of reasons. First, because students tend to completely stop working when they’re having fun, rather than continuing to move forward even as they laugh. Second, because when you don’t associate schoolwork with any fun, it’s impossibly hard to feel motivated to learn. Third, because a life spent where work and fun do not overlap is a very unpleasant life, indeed.
“Listen,” I told my students tonight. “You don’t even know that you think this, but you do. And you have to stop thinking it. You have to learn how to have fun and work at the same time. It’s essential to your survival.”