This is an incredible piece, Zita! The anticipation mindset of a beginner in any profession is something to illuminate — rather than the jaded and disillusioned mindset that often accompanies a veteran and experienced person in the game. In teaching, running, and as a writer, I have experienced both to different degrees, as success comes and goes in no matter what I do but the mindset is something I am in control of. I shared this with Sam Ripples once, but whenever I’m in the disillusioned or jaded mindset, from the great W.B. Yeats:

“Life is a journey up a spiral staircase; as we grow older we cover the ground covered we have covered before, only higher up; as we look down the winding stair below us we measure our progress by the number of places where we were but no longer are. The journey is both repetitious and progressive; we go both round and upward.”