COMMIT TO LEARNING

None of us knows how to do the things that will support us in having what we want - yet. If we knew how, we'd already be doing it and, thus, would have created the outcome we are wanting.

In choosing to create something new, we are committing ourself to learning. Learning is a fundamental aspect of the human experience.

A requisite for learning is to declare oneself ignorant. Once we do so we are on the path of learning. We have declared ourself a beginner.

How many of you are comfortable not knowing? How many of you are willing to admit that you don't know how to do something? This unwillingness to recognize your ignorance stands between you and what you want to learn.

Learning is a process - not an event - just like most everything else, including life. We take action and observe the result we produce. Often the result we produce is not what we had intended. That would be called a mistake, or even a mis-step. Learning is full of mis-steps. Observe a baby learn to walk. Yet when we interpret these mis-steps as failure, or judge that mistakes are not allowed, we set up resistance to learning something new.

Being a beginner is fraught with off course action. I remember learning how to type. It was waaaayyyyy back before electronic typewriters, which was before personal computers. I made so many mistakes it was unbelievable to me. My pages were a mess. My fingers kept going to the wrong keys, and the keys made no sense to my mind.

Quite frankly, I didn't do very well in that class. I never developed the finger dexterity to become a successful typist. And I was very discouraged by the many, many mistakes I was making. Back then, every corrected mistake could be seen. The only perfect page was a page that was typed perfectly. Ugh.

My typing improved when I got my first IBM Selectric. I was willing to type faster and risk mistakes, knowing I could more easily correct my errors.

But my fingers became blurs when I got my first Apple PC. I could pound away on the keys, though keys didn't pound anymore, and see my document before it went to the printer. There was even spell check! I was in typing heaven.

I would get an A+ in any typing course I took today. Why? Because I was willing to make mistakes. I knew I could correct them. There was little risk in going full out. And in doing so, my body was able to develop the coordination, dexterity, and speed to become an A+ typist.

Learning is like that. You know you have learned something when you are able to demonstrate it. Until that moment you are in the process of learning.

The key again is focus. Choosing to focus on your commitment to learning will serve you in moving through mis-steps back into action. And action in essential to creation.

QUOTES

"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."
  ~ Albert Einstein ~

"Remember when you see a man at the top of a mountain, he didn't fall there."
  ~ Anonymous ~

"Mistakes themselves are often the best teachers."
  ~ James Anthony Froude ~

PRACTICALLY SPEAKING

• Take a moment to scan your life and notice if there is anything you are in the process of learning. For example, I am in the process of learning how to set up the technology for my upcoming tele-class. (Have you SIGNED UP yet??)
• Appreciate yourself for your willingness to do what it takes to learn what you want to learn. Learning is a process which is inevitably accompanied by errors. Your willingness to experience mistakes and make corrections is key to the learning process.
• Give yourself a pat on the back for your willingness to engage with the learning process. This will motivate you to keep going.

WONDER QUESTION:

Are committed to the learning? 

Are you willing to risk mistakes, to ask for support, to take the actions, to learn what you want to learn?

DID YOU SIGN UP FOR THE UPCOMING TELECLASS?

Click here for more information!

DID YOU MISS THE LIVING BY DESIGN INTERVIEW?

It has been posted for your listening pleasure:

Click here

QUICK LINKS:

COPYRIGHT/CONTACT INFO/REPRINT PERMISSION

Copyright 2007 by Leslie Karen Sann, Living by Design
Visit this link for contact information:
leslie@living-bydesign.com

Reprint permission granted in part or whole when the following credit appears in full:

Copyright 2007 by Leslie Karen Sann,
Living by Design.All rights reserved. 
Web site. http://www.living-bydesign.com