I came to a really great definition of learning recently: Learning is not the process of accumulating, but the process of giving up.
The bigger the learning, the bigger the letting go.
Maybe, when we engage in the learning process, it’s not so much the assimilation of the new that is the tricky part, but the letting go of the stories, associations, ideas, behaviors- everything- that keeps us fixed in our previous versions of understandings.
Our previous version of “what we know”.
As someone that loves to learn, I am constantly seeking out new information. I spend thousands of dollars on training each year, and every time I find something that takes me down a new and fascinating rabbit hole, I have what I’ve come to recognize as my “Oh Sh*t” moment.
“Oh Sh*t” moments are categorized by the following:
🤯 Recognising how little you know, followed by an intense period of consideration of whether you should completely throw the towel in because you can’t believe an ignoramus such as you are allowed out of their bedroom
🧐 Feeling excited about all this new-found amazing knowledge whilst also realizing that you will now probably need to update everything you have ever produced, done, taught, or practiced… again.
🦋 Running around like a butterfly catcher of ideas and thoughts in the hopes that they don’t leave you before you’ve at least written them down on paper.
That’s the thing about learning. It’s a massive, steaming mountain of undoing and sometimes that can feel like a lot
(**heads up, this is also the “quit zone”. Don’t do that. You have to keep going. This is part of it).
The thing to hold on to is that the Oh Sh*t moment is inevitably followed by the “Oh Sh*t YES” moment, which has quite a different tone and is fueled by a feeling of excitability
You can’t have the “Oh Sh*t YES” moment without the “oh sh*t” part.
So with that in mind, don’t be afraid of the undoing. The frustration. The bits where you can’t coordinate body parts or momentarily forget your name (I mean, so I’ve heard… ).
All THAT is my friend is your undoing. And undoing is where it all begins.
Onwards.
❤️ Jane
