Educating is Gratifying

I've spent most of my waking hours over the past 18 days completely focused on educating others.  Prior to that, I was talking to my wife about how much I enjoyed educating people.  One of the things that I've realized during this recent journey is that it's the act of educating that is gratifying.  What others do with the information that they learn is up to them.  There's the rub!  I've always been someone who wants to teach people things.  For most of my life, however, I believe that I've attached the need for results to education.  Expecting results ultimately creates stress and conflict.  Resting on the enjoyment of the educational process brings joy and satisfaction.  I think that I've not only seen that in the past couple of weeks, but have felt it.

It's human nature to what to accomplish something.  Unfortunately, achieving a goal is not always easy to do.  There are often things beyond our control that keep us from our expected outcome.  When we're teaching others and hoping for them to achieve a goal or outcome, all bets are off.  We can not be responsible for the outcome that others attempt to achieve.  All we can do is our best when it comes to educating.  Of course, if we don't do a good job, we might have some culpability.  But, what's a good job?  The best teacher doesn't have a class of perfect students.

When I talk of education, it's not in the traditional sense of the word.  I'm not teaching a class.  I'm trying to impart knowledge on others so that they might benefit from that knowledge.  For the last 18 days, that's what I've been doing.  I feel really good about it.  I've had some positive results, but I realize that's not what makes me feel good.  What makes me feel good is that people appreciate receiving the knowledge.  That's the best part of educating. That's what's gratifying.