Last Friday I had a quick 6 tweet chat with Cath Duncan from Mineyourresources about the concepts of learning, change and discomfort. It put me on a train of thought that also brought to mind a quote I posted earlier from Leito Atreides (yes, Dune):
Without change something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken.
Cath and I agreed that when you know how your mind & body habitually reacts to change, and don’t fear that, then change can be quite comfortable. In that case it’s called learning and the more discomfort of mind & body you can endure the more you learn.
Or in other words, wake up that sleeper, hand him a strong cup of coffee and snap to it.
Somewhere down the line learning got a bad taste to it. Learning was something you did in school and was no fun at all. The same went for reading, an activity related to learning and so it’s no fun. That you’re reading this blog tells me that you at least don’t mind reading and probably have no hard feelings against learning as well.
Learning however, is giving your mind a really hard time. All those new things it’s got to master, making sence of things that seem nonsensical on all fronts except what our higher reasoning thinks about it. But our brain does not get that. Take learning to play the guitar for instance. You know you want to make music, all your brain gets is that you’re trying to make your fingers do things it’s not used to do and it hurts your fingertips. Anyone in their right mind would not do something that they know will inflict pain or other forms of discomfort. It takes some effort to get your brain to do those things that are outside its comfort zone.
See your brain a bit like a muscle. Or rather, see it exactly like a muscle. If you use it and push it, it will get stronger. Using your brain can be done in a lot of ways of course. Take your pick:
- Learn a new language
- Play an instrument
- Go an entire day without using your dominant hand
- Try a new type of food
- Start a blog
- Read a good book
- Rearrange all the furniture in your room
- Take up caligraphy
- Install a different OS on your computer
- Break a habit
- Take up touch typing (for the pro’s: on a Dvorak or Colemak layout)
- Basically anything that will change the status quo
The status quo is the sleeper
Keep the brain awake and always find new ways to make your brain a bit uncomfortable. It can handle it and will adapt.
This is something that we always have to keep rediscovering in our lives. These days I find that actual change of location inspires me to push myself in my projects and learn even more.
The prospect of change and learning – curiousity – as being dangerous, not fun, etc. needs to be trumped with the understanding that to survive in a world of perpetual change one must strive to be unendingly curious.
Today I took a CPR class and since it was my first time I had to stay through two classes. Even though I understood it in theory, physically going through the steps was awkward at first. By the second time my brain and body were both awake and working in synch.
I like Carl’s comment on being unendingly curious because that is what keeps us from living like robots and continually growing.
Learning … my ideas of learning came from the great India Pre-Independence Industrialist and still known all over India as Sri J.D.TATA .. , it has been said that even in his busy years of work expanding his companies .. he had an habit of learning some thing new every year .
Each year he would make it a point to learn some thing new than the other year … I guess I have started and kept in his footsteps .. hope that will stay for life long ….
Part of the problem for me is relating new information to a desired result. If I want to learn something – or be different – I am much more motivated to seek new information and to try to use it. That was the problem with school- the information didn’t relate to what was important to me. Perhaps it should have but no matter. Now I look for areas where I assumed I am incapable and set a goal to become capable- like telling a joke – and where I can be a more relatable human being from the effort.
Totally with you on this, Christiaan – I’ve just finished reading a great book by Daniel Coyle, called “Talent Code,” where Coyle talks about the idea of “deep practice,” which has been shown to be the fastest way to learn any skill. Deep practice involves breaking down a task into it’s smallest components – so small they’re barely recognizable as being a part of the skill you’re trying to develop. And then practicing doing that tiny part perfectly, failing, struggling and then trying again, failing, struggling, trying again, and over and over. Nobody taught us that this kind of discomfort and struggle in the learning process is a good thing, but it’s crucial in deep learning and real change.
And I’m totally with Carl on the importance of curiosity – curiosity is the passion that ignites and fuels the endless hours of struggle and learning!
Cath
Cath, I recently began reading a book entitled Talent is Overrated. It’s on the top human performers and the ideas of innate talent and genius being only a tiny fraction of how top performers succeed.
The idea the author floats is called deliberate practice – which is probably inline with the idea of deep practice. It’s critical, difficult and draining but it’s how performers reach peak levels of performance.
Very interesting. It’s HARD to apply “deep practice” or “deliberate practice” but I’m going to choose something I want to improve upon and start now!
In fact, for a while I was practicing maintenance of a clutter free zone (my office). It has had a positive impact but it’s been slowly getting cluttered again. I believe “deliberate practice” is what was creating the results.
Thanks for all the great commetns here. I’ll definately look into the “Deep practice” / “Deliberate practice” a bit more. It reminds me of the ten thousand hours rule mentioned in Outliers.
First of all, it’s nice to know that somebody still knows and appreciates Frank Herbert.
I’m down with you on this one. But what comes to my mind is the fact that trying something new, or doing something out-of-the-ordinary, can be scary sometimes. We are used to our habits that we know, they are safe, and it takes courage to try a new path or walk a different road. You dont now what you’ll find or where you’ll end up.
And I think the same goes for learning something new. You don’t know if you will succeed the first time, or the second, or what you will have to do to reach your goal.
And that would mean that learning is also overcoming your fear of new and uncertain things.
Or am I completely off the point here?