Wednesday 9 April 2008

Inspiring Others Towards Happiness Brings You Happiness

Let me explain - I drink a trendy herbal tea with yoga poses demonstrated on the box, and every little tab on the tea bag gives me a spiritual thought for the day. Today it told me that 'inspiring others towards happiness brings you happiness' and it rang true for me. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not usually an introspective, spiritual person at all, but I've been giving a lot of thought to the nature of teaching and the reasons for its appeal, and I can honestly say that this particular quote sums up my motivation nicely. 

It gives me great pleasure to make people happy. To give you an example, I love to cook, and more importantly, I love to feed people. I do a great line in crowd pleasing food, and I love it when people come to stay. I make sure everyone has enough to eat, that there's plenty to drink and that there's a good mix of people so no one gets bored. I also like to make sure there's dessert, and that it's chocolate. Everyone likes chocolate!

Now, while I'm not sure you can make a direct correlation between being a good hostess and being a teacher, there are clear links. As a hostess it's my job to cater for everyone's needs before mine, to make sure everyone's needs are catered for (i.e. no nuts for a friend who's allergic and plenty of veggie alternatives). Teachers have to ensure that all of their pupils are learning to the best of their abilities and that any special learning needs are noted and dealt with. 

Teaching pupils might not make them happy in the short term, after all, who really likes going to school, but it does help to ensure long term happiness. These young people learn a subject from you which helps them to get the qualifications and life skills they need to hopefully do whatever it is in life that makes them happy. 

You can't ask for more than that out of life.  

7 comments:

Narky said...

You are such an ENFJ!

Miss B. Have said...

I thought this was already established! :b

Narky said...

It was, you just reaffirmed it...

Miss B. Have said...

Well, if my personality type helps me get on my chosen career I might as well embrace it.

Narky said...

Whether you embrace it or not, it's still your personality type. You embraced your personality before you knew about the 4 letter thingy.

Miss B. Have said...

You make a very good point. I am me, I have always been me, and will continue to be me.

I must admit that knowing the 4 letter thingy has helped me understand myself better - which I like, despite not really being prone to introspection.

I remain grateful for your introduction to this personality test thing. It's been really useful in heping me prepare for the inevitable interview questions 'why do you want to be a teacher?', 'what makes a good teacher?' and 'what do you think you have to offer teaching?'

Narky said...

MBTI is a very good tool. For introsepctives and non-introspectives alike. It's also very useful for helping us learn how to interact with other people.