A student becomes a teacher

After becoming a student for years, a few friends asked me to teach Tai Ji. I rejected profusely, citing some lame excuses e.g. not ready, not good enough, do not want to mislead etc. Of course, being friends, they have the normal comeback for each of my excuses. I think the fact that I'm not charging for the class gives a strong incentive for them to try out Tai Chi for the first time!

I did think about why I didn't want to teach in the first place. Those reasons cited were actually true. And yet, something is nagging at the back of my mind about each of these reasons.

1. I don't feel I'm ready to teach.

Then it hit me that I will never be ready. Or to phrase it differently, I can never be ready as I am ready now. There will always be excuses down the line that will make me feel that I'm not ready - the timing is not right, I don't have time, I'm tired etc. It sounds very much like the top 10 excuses for not training!

2. I don't feel I'm good enough.

Also, I will never be good enough. There will always be someone better than me, but the question is, am I good enough for them?

3. I didn't want to mislead them

I didn't want to mislead them, the way I saw some of the teachers misled me! But without those misleading twists in my Tai Ji path, I wouldn't have been able to distinguish the good from the bad. So in a way, meeting these teachers did help. Somehow, the dots are joining.

So...

The student hence became a teacher, to all 3 students in the first lesson. :D They did try to rope in some other friends, but no one were as keen as them, yet. Maybe after the first class, more will turn up, and better still, none will turn up! Will see how this goes. Watch this space!