Do you enjoy the subject?

I had a conversation with a teacher friend of mine the other day and he mentioned that I was good at subjects like English and writing. And I’d never particularly thought of myself as being good at those subjects, but I did pretty well in school in both of them.

He said he wasn’t very good at those subjects.

And I asked if he enjoyed them.

He said he didn’t.

So I told him I did enjoy those subjects, and that’s likely why I was good at them.

I like to remind myself of this, and sometimes remind my students of this, because being good at something often just means that the person enjoys it enough to spend some time doing it.

For example, think of a hobby that you have. Are you fairly “good” at that hobby? Are you knowledgeable about that hobby?

My guess is the answer to both of those questions is, “yes”, for a lot of people because hobbies, or any activity that you enjoy, is something you do often. And you learn about it and think about it and try to get better at it.

If you enjoy it, you’ll get better.

If you don’t enjoy it, getting better may be more of a struggle.

ISJ