Learning Skills

The secret to eternal youth? Lifelong learning! You always feel young when you’re a beginner. (It’s also a good reminder to those of us who teach, parent or supervise; learning is difficult and requires a lot of energy.)

Why do we hesitate to take on new learnings as we get older? Habit probably, but maybe more because we hate looking foolish. We’ve put a lot of years into growing older. Now that we’re finally the adults in charge, we hate to throw that dignity away.

Being taught by someone younger than the boots you're wearing is hard on the ego, as is realizing you may never master the skills they perform with ease. Flashbacks to bumbling, awkward teenagehood don’t help.

But what if we can enjoy the process of learning; of ineptitude becoming mastery?

• What if there is no rush because we know life is a process, not a race? 
• What if participating is good enough? 
• What if we know that by proudly exhibiting our incompetence we are helping experts feel even better about their skills?
• What if we knew that we were modelling, to our kids and to the world, all those values we espouse: that perfection is not mandatory and trying is what counts?

If we approach learning with this kind of thinking, we tend to accept ourselves, and enjoy the learning process.