Embracing and Enjoying the Learning Process
By Susan Knight | How to acquire new skills at any age with greater ease and less frustration.
Written by Susan Knight | Seeking Veritas Columnist | Sankarsingh-Gonsalves Productions.
The ease and speed with which children acquire new skills is amazing. It’s why we describe them as being sponges; they’re able to soak up so much, so quickly and easily. This ability is due in part to the extreme neuroplasticity of a child’s brain, which enables them to readily absorb, integrate, and retain new information.
We maintain a measure of brain plasticity throughout our lives, although not to the same extent as when we were children. This means that acquiring new skills as we get older is entirely possible, but typically more challenging. This applies whether we’re taking up a new sport, learning to play a musical instrument, or adopting new habits and behaviours. Our progress may be slower than we would like it to be; and we may find ourselves encountering plateaus and setbacks along the way — all of which can make for a frustrating and discouraging experience.
Fortunately, much of that frustration and discouragement can be alleviated by coming at things with the right attitude and approach.
In his book ‘The Practicing Mind: Developing Focus and Discipline in Your Life’, Thomas M. Sterner emphasizes the need to embrace the learning process itself when attempting to acquire a new skill, rather than obsessing over the end goal you’re striving to attain. By allowing yourself to fully sink into each moment along the way as you’re learning, you enter a state where you’re able to learn more effectively and efficiently; and you’re far more likely to enjoy yourself while doing so.
Sterner describes this as taking control of the practicing mind. He identifies four interrelated elements that play a key role: simplify, small, short, and slow.
1. Simplify Modify a complex goal so it’s realistic based on your current capabilities, so you’re challenged without being overwhelmed. Allowing yourself to get stuck over a totally unrealistic endeavour will only lead to frustration and disappointment, increasing the likelihood you’ll give up on whatever it is you’re trying to do. Whereas every time you set and achieve a reasonable target, you gain confidence, build motivation, and generate momentum — three crucial ingredients for staying the course.
2. Small Break your big, unwieldy goal down into small, attainable sections. Building a new skill requires focus and concentration, and it’s much easier to focus and concentrate on a small section rather than a large one. Small sections also allow for more repetition, which is essential for learning a new skill and building muscle memory.
3. Short Think quality, not quantity, when it comes to your time investment. It’s far better to spend 20 minutes engaged with full attention, as opposed to one hour where you’re fatigued, distracted, and merely going through the motions absentmindedly. In addition, you can make even the most difficult or challenging task less daunting by shortening the time frame to something more manageable.
4. Slow Go at a pace that allows you to pay attention to what you’re doing. How slow? That depends on your personality, your comfort level, and the task at hand. Ultimately, you want to work at a slow enough pace whereby you’re fully aware of what you’re doing; and able to observe your actions consciously and deliberately. Sterner explains that incorporating slowness into the learning process is a bit of a paradox. Because you’re not wasting energy, you wind up accomplishing whatever you’re doing more quickly and with less effort.
When these four elements — simplify, small, short, and slow — are combined, your perception of the passage of time changes. You actually lose your sense of time, as all your energy goes into what you’re doing. As you immerse yourself in the task at a level of difficulty that requires your full attention without being overwhelming or frustrating, that blend of complete focus and attention puts you into a flow state. The beauty of working in flow state is that you not only experience a pleasant sense of calm and mental relaxation; your learning ability is enhanced and accelerated as well.
Learning a new skill later in life won’t be effortless and it won’t happen overnight. But the right attitude and approach will increase the likelihood of success, while making the entire experience much more enjoyable and rewarding.
About the author: Susan Knight | SGP Featured Writer | Contact the author: @ http://skfreelance.com
Susan is certified health and wellness coach with a focus on personal growth and inner wellness. She was a regular contributor to Social Work Today Magazine and is a featured Health & Wellness Columnist for SGP.
Thanks for this Susan. Your points were concise, well written and very useful for a guy my age trying to broaden my skillset and branch out into something new. I've always seen myself as the turtle in Aesop's fable about the turtle and the hare, so it's reassuring to hear that going slow and simplifying things can still be a formula for successful learning.