Hikes… I have asked myself the same question. It is such a discouraging feeling. You have the idea of making significant progress in a certain skill. You are motivated, excited and have thought of all the interesting things you will be able to perform.
Perhaps it’s playing your favorite songs on the piano, participating in the freelance world by learning web development, or learning how to invest in the stock market and accumulate wealth for your retirement.
Once you start, and because excitement is still kicking in, you dedicate some hours to the learning process and get a sense of accomplishment. Some weeks pass by (sometimes it’s only days) and the lack of progress gets you a little bit off. You come up with some excuses to avoid practicing in the next few days. And when you realize, you have completely given up learning the skill.
The reason why I’m able to describe the process so accurately is that I’ve been there… way too many times. It happened with piano, photoshop, coding, french, guitar, skateboarding, and who knows how many more I’ve forgotten.
Honestly, it reached a point where I almost feared getting into learning skills. “If I’m going to fail, why even bother?” The pattern seemed to repeat every time: starting with a high dose of motivation; getting into the learning itself; practicing for a couple of weeks and giving up without understanding why.
Thankfully, there was one thing that kept me going… OTHER PEOPLE WERE DOING IT! I saw people learning languages in a short period of time, others switching careers entirely just by dedicating themselves to design, some playing a ton of instruments, and a few starting successful businesses by mastering a wide range of skills without any formal education. Why can’t I do the same? Turns out, I could do it. And you can too.
After facing the initial discomfort of accepting my past failures, I decided that my only mission was Learning How to Learn. I didn’t care how long it would take me. I didn’t care how difficult it was. And I didn’t care how costly it was. After all, it is a lifetime skill and the investment was surely going to pay off.
