What motivates you to teach? What is the motivation behind your teaching profession?

Upon getting my BSc in Real Estate and Property Management, I was looking forward to developing into a real estate guru, one step at a time. I never envisaged teaching as a profession I will commit to.

There must be a story behind how you came to become a teacher. You may have planned to become one or it just happened. Whatever your story, you must be getting some fulfillment to keep you going. Teaching is a high calling – the greatest weapon with which we can use to change the world. As Nelson Mandela put it, 

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

The above quote can be your great motivation as a committed teacher. You can make your own little contribution towards changing the world. As a teacher, you are a key stakeholder in the nurturing of great minds and the building of the leaders of tomorrow.

There is a purpose behind everything we do as humans. Some people become doctors because they want to help the needy. Some others took leadership positions, maybe because they got so disillusioned by those already leading. In every profession, there is always something that motivates people to keep going on. 

Of course, some became what they are by accident. Notwithstanding the circumstances that may lead anyone to dabble in any career, he or she must find a higher purpose in order to make an impact.

You Should Teach, Inspire and Motivate

In 2009, a movement was started by Simon Sinek to enable people to become better inspired at work, and consequently motivate their colleagues and customers. In the education sector, this motivation will be for teachers and students. In his TED Talk based on Start With Why— the third most popular TED video of all time, he proposed The Golden Circle. It gives strategies on how people can be inspired. The whole idea starts with WHY.  What you do and how you do what you do should follow why you do something at all.

As a teacher, you teach – this is what you do, and you teach with firmness and passionate disposition – this is how you do the teaching. The high question is Why? Why do you teach and why do you teach in a certain way?

Finding your purpose will help you maintain your focus even in the midst of challenges. Knowing your ‘WHY’ will help you to see what you do – teaching and however you do it as a higher calling. It could be that you want to produce better leaders etc.

Now and always, remember your high importance as a teacher. If nothing else inspires you, keep in mind and live by this wonderful saying by Krissy Vensodale:

I’m changing the world
one day at a time.
I Teach.