Blowing bubbles underwater
Learning new skills
My son recently started swimming lessons. He is extremely bright and most new things are easy for him to grasp, but swimming is not. He developed his own dog paddle style of swimming which allows him to move forward but would not work for longer distances and is not energy efficient. It is not easy for him to learn breaststroke swimming (he especially hates putting his head underwater).
Sitting by the pool watching the instructor explain how to blow bubbles underwater I realised that a similar process happens to all when we need to acquire a new skill. If we are accomplished and smart, we’ve had some skills that we acquired naturally or a long time ago and we hardly remember the learning process. And let’s not forget the ego that may be involved in the process, learning a new skill involves admitting that there is something we are not proficient in. If we don’t admit this we will forever stay novice in that area.
When my grandfather passed away I found a practice notebook where he taught me how to write letters. The ruled paper notebook was filled with letters, each repeated dozens of times and with a grade mark next to it (my grandfather was a very strict teacher). I remember telling him at some point that it is good enough and him explaining to me that I am writing so that others can read it, not simply to put the letters on the paper. I doubt my grandfather ever thought my writing is perfect, but I can still hear him whenever I am learning something new, trying to crystallise the new skill that I am trying to acquire and excel in it.
As kids we are in constant learning phase, the world is new and we expect to learn how to tie our own shoe laces, how to use a knife, how to dress by ourselves, blow bubbles underwater and write letters. This process never stops, we keep discovering things that we do not know yet and new skill set we can acquire. As adults however, we think that perhaps at some point we already know what we need, we are using our knowledge and skills daily and think that maybe this is sufficient. The world changes, our work changes and we change, the skills we had are not always the skills we need.
If we keep a child like open mind and find the right teachers, we can become better, faster and keep acquiring new skills. As my son explained to me “there is no one that knows everything, because there is always more”.
