Finding 'the Pit' is part of the journey. Reflective teachers take time to prioritize, not just at the beginning of the year, but as they navigate through the roadblocks and check their course along the way. I've seen wonderful teachers get so mired in the details of teaching that they don't see all the good they are doing or enjoy it. It's not hard to do. Teaching is hard, frustrating, full of minutiae, interruption, disruption, and discipline issues that distract from what's important.
Teaching is also full of contradictions that make navigation difficult.
Classrooms require order for learning to happen. At the same time, creativity requires tolerance of ambiguity and uncertainty. We need both. For my friend Bernie, a high school English teacher, grading was her Pit. Everyone knows that the sacrosanct duty of a Good English Teacher is to spend hours over stacks of student papers.