Seeing the forest through the trees

September 29, 2009 at 10:21 am | Posted in la vida | 5 Comments
Tags: observations

Sometimes it seems like life is just a string of hard-learned lessons I never really benefit from. It’s easy to realize when you’ve learned from a mistake, but it’s not so easy to remember and recognize when to apply that lesson in future situations.

In my latest case of lesson-learning, I wrote off the idea of working for a language academy without stopping to think that maybe it would be smarter to discuss my concerns with the directors first, in order to try to come to an agreement. Luckily, they called me and suggested we meet to talk before I made any final decisions. I agreed, and then felt silly for having sent my “good riddance” (although polite and reasonable) email instead of just calling to have an actual conversation and try to come up with a solution for my problem.

It turns out that they were willing and happy to meet me halfway. I agreed to take a few of their classes instead of all the ones we had originally discussed, thus leaving half of my evenings available for giving my own classes. On the same day, I met with another language academy that wanted to hire me to give a late morning class at a nursery. I’m still undecided about this one, as I want to find out exactly how many two-year-olds we’re talking about. However, it could potentially be a good deal since it’s a little tricky finding morning classes, which is when I’m most available.

By working for academies half of the time, I’ll have the security of knowing I’ll be able to make rent each month without fail. The money is guaranteed, except on holidays, which is not the case with private classes. But by having the other half of my work hours free from academies, I can organize a few of my own classes, allowing me to make the most of my time by scheduling pay-per-person classes with small groups. Now, having both the fixed income and more control over how much money I can potentially earn each month, I think I’ve achieved the best of both worlds.

In my last blog, I admitted that decision-making is not my forte. From this most recent event, I have learned that situations are not necessarily black and white, and discarding an option or situation that appears unsatisfactory without first working to fix it is probably a mistake. I’m pretty sure I’ve learned this lesson before, in one aspect of my life or another, but learning to apply it is an on-going challenge.