MESSAGE #750 TEACHER IS STUDENT, STUDENT IS TEACHER
“Though he acts as a teacher, within himself, he should be a learner.”
-B.K.S. Iyengar
Today’s message is especially dedicated to the great B.K.S. Iyengar in Prune, India.
I’m a tennis teacher. I’m also a tennis learner.
Yes, I teach tennis – the strokes, strategy, preparation, character, fitness, nutrition and mental training.
But it goes deeper than that.
My students learn from me, but I also learn from my students. On a daily basis.
I believe that part of teaching is learning and re-learning.
The last thing I want to do is be on automatic. I don’t want to be a parrot. Every student has different needs and challenges, therefore, I learn from them – I learn new ways to teach. This also helps me customize the lesson for my student. It’s like playing a match – sometimes you have to make adjustments. Conditions will never be exactly the same, so why do we act like they are?
“There are many unknown things to be known.”
I even look at my opponent as a teacher. They are attacking my weaknesses in order to win a point, so they are teaching me how to improve. I, on the other hand, am doing the same to them.
In the past, I used to think of my opponent as the enemy. Someone I wanted to beat. But once I realized that there was another way to look at it, my game changed. I thought of my opponent as a teacher and student. I started to relax. I started to play to my potential. And I started to really have fun. The result was no longer an issue. It was all about the present moment.
This may be strange or a paradigm shift for you, but try to think about this for the rest of your day. Think about how you are a teacher and how you are a student. In the end, we are really all the same.
Thanks for reading.