No one ever told me...

...that I would spend most of my professional life being a cheerleader for other people. Nor did they tell me that it was so tiring.

On Thursday afternoons, I take part in co-managing a student project to complete an environmental innovation project funded by the EPA. Today, the students were in need of a pick-me-up, so I spent most of the class period asking them to describe accomplishments we'd already made in the project, and rewarded them by tossing bite-sized candy bars left over from Valentine's Day. It's one of those moments that is certainly worthwhile, but you don't expect to encounter in your career while slaving away at a PhD.

I suppose that it's not a requirement unique to professors, but also applies to managers and parents and pastors and marketers and missionaries and bus drivers.

Whom in your life have you had to cheerlead, even at the expense of your personal productivity? How do you keep yourself cheered along while doing so?