Steep Learning Curve

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There are times in our lives when we start something which pretty soon turns out to be a steep learning curve... And whether we anticipated that from the get-go, or whether we just jumped in, head over heals ~ it doesn’t make much of a difference once your in it.

It also doesn’t make much of a difference whether it is about something relatively simple like revamping a website or a blog, or if it is about skills like speaking in public, managing an organization, or communicating with the world around you from a perspective of equality.

What happens is that, either by decision or through circumstance one finds himself in a situation where there is no turning back, and it isn’t clear yet what the next step is or where this path will lead to. And suddenly we are thrown into about the oldest manner in which we learn things: trial and error.

We take a step, try something ~ and it is either going to work, or it isn’t. It’s that simple.

The worst thing we can do to ourselves in a situation like that, is to take our apparent failures, our errors, personally. In a situation like this, taking a step in the wrong direction ~ or even a wrong turn ~ isn’t a bad thing; it is something we learn from. And the next thing we try is going to be different, and may work better.

When we find ourselves on a steep learning curve, our previous perspectives on success and failure are no longer true. Success may not refer to the ultimate goal any longer, but rather to being successful at taking the next step and making it work. By the same token, failure to make that next step work doesn’t reflect on our person ~ it just tells us that we need to try something different.

Although we can get a sense of ‘waiting for the other shoe to drop’, a more realistic way to look at it is that everything we thought we knew is no longer true. And therefore we need to re-evaluate.

We need to look with new eyes at the things that turn out we actually can do. And often, when we take stock, we will find that there are way more things that we can do than we previously thought we could!
If we dare take an honest look at the situation we find ourselves in, it becomes clear what our strengths and weaknesses really are... Where we have room for improvement; where we really don’t want to apply ourselves (and resolve to ask for help) ~ and where we are ‘better’, more successful than we had ever realized!
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