I love to learn.
I would almost rather learn something new than do anything else. To the point where I consciously have to stop learning sometimes and go do the thing.
School almost ruined that for me.
I’m lucky because I learn quickly and easily in a school environment.
I’m also unlucky because I learn quickly and easily in a school environment which means I spent most of my time bored and unchallenged. That soured me for a lot of years.
After having kids I became interested in learning again, but I was ego driven.
I like fast so I was always trying to stay ahead of whoever the teacher was.
On a computer I would click fast and ahead of whoever was teaching me and while reading a book I was skimming ahead and missing important pieces.
If I was learning something functional I wanted to “get it” fast.
That has brought me enough pain that it’s changed me.
When the teacher was gone I would realize I didn’t fully understand what I had been taught, and I was unable to figure it out again on my own.
All of the time I had spent learning would be lost because I couldn’t apply it later.
I’m sure I was frustrating to teach, and I’m certain everyone who was learning along with me wasn’t able to fully comprehend either as I kept things moving too quickly.
The biggest lesson for me has been that I need to walk in humble, to leave everything I think I already know at the door and try to grasp the best understanding of what this particular teacher is teaching.
Later as I’m applying what I’ve learned, I work to amalgamate it with the information I had previously.
I’ve learned the best way for me to learn is to make myself a blank slate. And my favourite people to learn with are the ones who do the same.
I understand that if something doesn’t make sense as I go or if I feel uncertain, it’s better to stop, ask a question and get clarity instead of assume it will make sense later.
I prefer to not know now, then I have the space to actually learn something.
As my favourite Mark Twain quote goes…
“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”