I'm good at things. And you can be, too!

I have always done things that I'm good at. Basically, I avoid anything that requires work, perseverance, patience, or any other virtue that I have zero interest in cultivating. So, that's how I manage to be good at things. I just steer clear of things I'm bad at. Feel free to use this trick in your own life.

The downside of this habit is that I do it too often. Even things I'm good at and could be really good at I don't devote the time needed to make that jump from good to really good to, maybe, even great. The strange thing is that, as a writing teacher, a big part of my job is judging the work of people who are doing something that they might not be good at and then telling them that they should work harder to be better at it. Life is full of little hypocrisies, isn't it?

I might be diligent at very little, aside from avoiding work, but even that diligence doesn't keep me from falling into situations in which I'm doing things I'm not good at. A few weeks ago I read a book that was set in Russia--not a Russian novel, just a novel that happened to take place there. I've never, ever finished a Russian novel. I've tried, but they're hard, and you know how I feel about things that are hard. But for whatever reason, I decided that I wanted to give it a go again. I would try to read a Russian novel.  I've been slogging through The Master and Margarita. I like it; I hate it; I'm utterly confused and intrigued by it.  I'm bad at understanding it.

I was thinking about that on my walk tonight. By reading this book, I'm doing that thing I don't do. I'm sticking to something that I'm uncomfortable with and something that makes me work harder than  I have to. I don't like it, but it helps me to understand where my students are when they're reading short stories, poems, and plays that I've read dozens of times. They hopefully like it; they definitely hate it; they're utterly confused and maybe slightly intrigued by it. And even though it uncomfortable,  this crazy Russian novel is where I need to be to get me to the place where my students need me to be.