The Baby Steps of Learning
24 April 2009“What do you pack to pursue a dream and what do you leave behind?” ~Sandra Sharpe
The experience of learning something new includes success, failure, phases of minimal progress and no progress at all. The success part is great. Unfortunately, failures and lack of fast progress often throw people for a loop.
Many people believe that they have to quickly become perfect in anything they do to be viewed as worthy and successful. If your ultimate goal swings toward perfection, little room is left for failure as you walk along the learning path. If you can’t tolerate failure, one solution is to simply quit so you won’t be at risk for encountering more failure than you can handle. What happens next? Your dreams get squashed and you pretend that you never cared about them anyway.
How does a young child learn to walk? She falls down over and over again as she takes those first wobbly steps. Failure is naturally a part of the process. Fortunately, she has not yet absorbed the belief that failure is unacceptable. She keeps trying to walk until she masters the ability.
A toddler’s ignorance about the concept of failure is one of her greatest assets. Why not recapture some of the innocence of your former self? Forget about the notion of failure as you act on an urge to dabble in something new. Don’t allow exaggerated shortcomings and failures to take you away from your unique path. Go for your dreams and stay focused on them. Adopt the spirit of a child and play with wild abandon! Even bumpy baby steps will eventually lead you to the place you want to go.
Questions to Ponder
What is something that you would you like to learn? What’s holding you back?
When you are learning something new, how do you respond to praise, encouragement and support from others? Do you truly receive it? Do you remember to praise, support and encourage yourself? What are some advantages of praising yourself?
What is your perspective on failure? Is it serving you? How can failure become your friend?
What does perfection mean to you? What role does it play in your life? How is this impacting your life?
(c)2006 Beverly Keaton Smith
Beverly Keaton Smith, CPCC owns and operates Embrace Your Gifts and Soar! She is a certified life coach who offers individual life coaching, group coaching, workshops and retreats to women who are ready to discover and embrace their unique gifts so they can live more athentically and joyfully. She is also co-author of The Book of Druthers. To learn more about Beverly, visit http://www.embraceyourgifts.com
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