Emotional Labor: How to Maximize the Power of Preparation (Part 3)

âGive me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.â  – Abraham Lincoln

It was both the most crowded and the loneliest place on campus.

You might wonder how can a place be full of people and yet also a solitary experience. I’m speaking of my years in college as a music student at the University of Miami. And the place I’m referring to? The Bertha Foster practice room building.

Every minute of the day that the building was open (and sometimes when it was...