Original LinkedIn post from June 4, 2018
I love Capoeira – a Brazilian Martial art that combines self-defense with music, acrobatics and dance.
I started training in martial arts at 13, at age 17 I joined Capoeira, and by September 2006 I was teaching it. I taught for seven years, have hosted radio shows, national championships organized international trips and have taught thousands of students.
And I hated my job.
I loved my students, I loved doing capoeira, but I hated working in capoeira.
In 2010, I started teaching part time in school settings, and have since taught in several schools, full time. But even there, I was unhappy.
Today I have the job of my dreams. I never knew I would be entertaining hundreds of people in the museum, engaging diverse crowds in jewish history and archaeology, pop culture, talmud and deep learning. And yet, everything I did until now has prepared me for this.
Why? Why did I hate working in something I loved doing, and am now happy doing something which I did not at all intend to do?
I would like to share with you a treasure that helped me understand this question, and which helped me start turning things around: From being a creative, enthusiastic, engaging – and frustrated school teacher, to someone who is passionate about what he does.
I follow a podcast called Art of Manliness by Brett McKay. I listened to an episode called The Myth of Following Your Passion, which is an interview with Cal Newport, author of So Good They Can’t Ignore You. This title, by the way, is a piece of advice by Steve Martin.
What happened after that?
I was still teaching full-time, but I was in a different head space. I became a Jedi. I was going to knock the ball out of the park. I wasn’t just doing my job (with care, love and commitment, as a teacher should), but I was stretching myself, building my skill and becoming more versatile. I became noticed in the whole school, not just locking myself up in the teachers’ lounge with piles of work to get through, the daily grind, trying to get through the material and prepare the students for this and that.
While hitherto I was working in the middle school, I volunteered to give special workshops to 1-6th graders. I engaged with other department, and became an asset to the school.
I told myself every day: ‘Be so good, they can’t ignore you’.
And so it happened that I lost my job, and found my dream.
