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A long
time ago, in graduate school actually, I made up my mind to take what I was
doing very seriously, but not to take myself seriously at all. There is a
massive difference. That decision made graduate school endurable, sometimes even
fun, but interestingly enough, it did not endear me to a certain set of my
professors.
By
choosing to put things into these priorities, it meant that everything
that I did was done to the absolute best of my ability...that was taking my task
seriously. But if something went wrong, well, stuff happens and I'd
just have to try again or another way. It didn't reflect on me personally,
just on my performance of that particular task. I had a serious
argument with my PhD supervisor who felt that this attitude was
irresponsible and I "should be more invested in my career". A year
later, I'd decided that I'd rather teach at technical colleges with an MA
and he'd gone to Hawaii on sabbatical where he'd run away with a cocktail
waitress, leaving his wife of 20 years, a kind and brilliant professor of
environmental studies. Maybe we should take what we do seriously
without taking ourselves too seriously.
Maryanne Stroud Gabbani
Cairo,
Egypt
maryanne@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.ratbusters.net
bobmorris@xxxxxxxx writes:
If a failure is recognized the ego
and the id are thus compromised and it will affect the individual for
life.
For some involved in this sport,
compromising the ego and the id is probably a good place to start.
Frank.
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