Preparing for Joy - Joy in Preparing

I have been teaching for about 9 years now. You would think after that much time I would not need to prepare for my classes very much - but in fact I do. Sometimes I spend several hours preparing for a one hour class. I love the challenge of coming up with a good playlist and exciting choreography - it makes it that much more enjoyable to deliver a good class when I know I worked hard at it. The same goes for almost anything else in life. We usually spend MORE time preparing than actually enjoying the final event. A nice meal. A wedding. A vacation. A party. A purchase. Have you ever planned a home improvement project? The fun is actually in the planning and doing. Sure it is nice when you are done but you usually don't think about it again - you move onto something else. I think it makes a big difference in the outcome when you put that extra effort in the preparation. I could easily throw together a class or a meal with very little effort but every time I have the end result isn't as sweet. If you are going to do something I think it is usually worth doing well and you might as well enjoy every part of it.