Many a person has set out to learn something new — with little success. While learning is a natural process and something we were made to do, actually carrying out the learning process and gaining skills and knowledge is more difficult in practice than in theory.
“Always walk through life as if you have something new to learn and you will.” (Vernon Howard)
This came to my attention recently while listening to Brené Brown’s new podcast, Unlocking Us. If you haven’t heard of her, this woman has spent the majority of her adult life compiling thousands of pieces of data on vulnerability, shame, courage, and interpersonal connections. She writes on how to overcome fear, shaming, and ultimately how to find your power.
In her first episode of this podcast, released just this week, she speaks about a concept she and her team have coined FFTs — better known and understood as the bluntly named “fing first times”*, or TFTs, terrible first times if you’re around young children or prefer gentler language. The idea behind this concept is pretty obvious — trying something for the first time sucks.
The question is, why do first attempts suck?
Phrased a different way, _why _is it so difficult to learn something new? The truth is when it comes to our cognitive abilities and the process of the brain gaining information, it isn’t hard — it’s the lies and created barriers we’ve built up around learning that makes it so difficult.
Brené Brown, the expert on vulnerability, would explain to you that it’s not the learning and the conquering that’s inherently difficult. What’s difficult is building up the courage to start learning in the first place, and to handle the inherent setbacks along the way. Learning is a natural process — but we can only live that out when we remember that vulnerability is too.
Unfortunately, the lies stipulate just the opposite.
“It’s not worth it if I could fail.”
As I said, Brené Brown is the expert on vulnerability. She doesn’t take shit from anybody. And she is adamant about the fact that we have to be vulnerable. It is hardly ever fun, never easy, always a struggle, yet always worth it.
While this certainly applies in our relationships, business adventures, writing excursions, and conversations, it also applies to how we attack what we attempt to comprehend and succeed at in a pure psychological way.
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”― Dr. Seuss
Many a person has walked up to a topic, a major, a subject matter, or a class and walked away because there was a possibility that they wouldn’t be able to learn it. I certainly saw this concept play out in my own life when I attempted to finish my online self-paced Calculus 1 class before the end of the year.
While an 80 isn’t an A, it’s still more than the 20% mark I had reached when I considered quitting.
The thought I finally had to solidify in my mind was that **even if I didn’t get an A+ in the class, I would learn **more about math and grow my ability to comprehend complex mathematical and scientific concepts by continuing on than quitting because of the possibility of failure. While an 80 isn’t an A, it’s still more than the 20% mark I had reached when I considered quitting.
The truth is, it is near impossible to consume information, read a book, be in a new place, and talk/listen to an intelligent without learning something. Even if you don’t get an A in the class, completely learn the language, get the degree, or get awarded the certification, **you learn something. **In the end, that’s all that really matters.
#life #life-lessons #learning #business #mental-health #deep learning
