When do I learn the best and fastest?
learning in anger
It’s when I am disappointed with my skills. I feel like I am the dumbest person in the room who was brave enough not to learn the thing before. And I say to myself “Boy, how couldn’t you think of this a year ago?”
All these make me angry. Not to the world, but to myself. Interestingly enough, this anger was often what propelled me to learn faster and better. When I got into this AngryMe mode (pun intended), I felt as if this anger were fire and that I were on a mission to put it out.
Of course, such disappointment hurt my narcissistic ego. But it has forced me to do whatever to keep myself away from the pain. As a result when I am angry with my poor performance, I tend to learn very well and fast.
This may come across as masochistic. But here’s a thing. It’s something that happens in life, so you need to find a way to deal with it. Then why not use it to your advantage? Don’t get bogged down by disappointment anymore. Be angry. Let it grow in you. If it grows big enough, you will have to find a way to get it out.
learning with mistakes
I learned that if I am not red-lining on some parts of what I do, my learning curve is working sub-optimally. It seems Pareto principle applies to learning. Your growth is fundamentally a function of micro success and failure. And the aggregate small success will determine 80% of intellectual and emotional growth. And mistakes only 20%.
Now I know that if I’m trying to get everything perfect the first time, I am not learning fast enough. Why? because I will always be late on action. I will say I am just preparing. But such preparation turned out an active form of procrastination. Not that I was lazy—or maybe. I was just afraid of taking it out to the world, before I was sure it wouldn’t make me look bad.
How do I know all these? Simple. I’ve been that dude for a long time. And I know it’s just a wimp’s way of learning anything.
Does this make sense to you?