Success

What does it mean to succeeed?
What does it mean to be good at what you do?

In a time of uncertainty, change, growth trial and error, I keep running into the same key question: what does success look like? When do you know that you're good enough?

Is it all a matter of knowing when you're happy?

In this city of neon lights the pressure builds to never stop, to excel at it all, to be an all star.

But you can't. No one can.

So I take a good look at the window of possibilities and yell, "I can't do that! Here is what I'm good at. Here's what I like. And that doesn't say anything about me, it's actually a sign of strength that I know what I don't do well!"

The impetus for this heart-felt cry? I had to admit that elementary school education, and the lesson plans, behavior control, excessive planning and headaches that go with it are not my forte.

Because, similar to that perenial desire to just be a "simple Jew," I just want to gather together a group of teens or adults and learn, teach and move forward in our communal pursuit of Torah. I don't want to think about enduring understandings. I just want to move on and "get Jews doing Jewish," without so much focus on the process.

At the end of the day, I guess success looks like the smiling faces of students who know they've accomplished something big. Success looks like what I can be happy doing.

I can't hope to please everyone. Finally learning that will take some time.

I sit here, in a local coffee shop, preparing to expose Jews for the first time to the wisdom of the Mishnah. I finish writing my first blog post on my iPhone.

In some weird way, I feel pretty damn successful.

Comments

[Lori Bolotin]

You should feel successful - because you are!!And I can't believe you have an I phone before I do!

[Barkin]

"Look at me! I'm so successful. I have an iPhone. I'm so great. I'm David Singer and I'm so Jewish and I have an iPhone. Look at my iPhone. I expose Jews to the Mishnah and I have an iPhone."