January 21, 2004
On Learning
Sometimes it takes a great deal of practice to learn something new, and sometimes I get it right away or after just a little practice. But when I do learn, it is because something in my head clicks and all of a sudden whatever I was trying to learn comes very easily. I just understand it, and I don’t know where that understanding comes from. I can think of many times I’ve had this “clicking” feeling: playing the trombone, driving, learning to type, running…the list goes on. But what makes that click happen? If only I could figure that out, I could learn new things a lot faster!
Posted at January 21, 2004 09:45 AM
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Hey Sheena,
I definitely agree. I've noticed that I learn things logically quickly. However, just learning something logically doesn't often lead to its implementation.
What takes a long time is that "clicking" or core emotional learning. That can take days or even years. I guess the obvious example is riding a bicycle. You can logically understand how to do it by peddling and stearing the handle bars fairly quickly. However, that clicking might take awhile.
I agree that getting to the core of why and how this happens would be very powerful. Obviously, things like practice and timing are important, but they are only part of the picture.
You weren't, by any chance, juggling when you were learning how to play the trombone, learning to drive, type or run, were you?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3417045.stm
Sheena, I've experienced this many times, with new languages, with dancing, typing, any physical and mental skill. What makes that "click" is acquiring a critical mass of experience. The brain sorts it out and accumulates it, and repetition is the key. Physical tasks get coded into "muscle memory", so it becomes automatic, like driving a car or riding a bicycle. The newly acquired skill then becomes second nature.
To speed up learning, try to connect the new to something already mastered. The better you are at the "anchor" skill, the easier the association. My grounding in German grammar was so thorough that all other languages and even logic systems fell right in place. I see the parallels in so many things now. Win Wenger's techniques work on the same formula.
You know you've "got" it when you don't have to think about it anymore, it just happens. And be gentle with yourself during the assimilation phase - know that it is a short but necessary process, like digesting a meal, whose nutrients then become a part of you.
The emotional element, as Michael mentioned, in my view is stronger and faster because the brain and whole organism react and encode the experience more widely and vividly system-wide, so the critical mass builds faster. Just try to make those emotions positive for long-term comfort. Happy mental feasts!
