Learning is something I believe in. Why? Because I believe that’s how we grow. Either as a musician, carpenter or in our faith.
Do you believe in learning? If you do – great. If you don’t – why? Do feel things are beyond you? Are you just too busy or pre-occupied to bother? Are you pretty sure that can’t learn it anyway? Have you always found learning things difficult or that you never seem to “get it”?
My question to you would be “have you ever felt like you learned something?”
If you can say “yes” than you can learn – you just may experience difficulty learning in certain styles or situations. Identifying how you learn best is a key step to moving forward and really opening up a world vs. closing yourself in.
I think once you identify HOW you learn best you’ll learn more & better than you ever have before. Then, learning can become fun and energizing instead of a “slog”.
As a musician of over 20 years I can say I’ve had my fair share of learning set-backs. Those things that just don’t make sense. That’s when a teacher is great. A person with knowledge beyond yours is wonderful in those moments. But beware – just because someone is good or great at a particular thing does not make them a great teacher.
If I were to give a 3 Easy Steps to Better Learning – I’d say:
1. Identify your learning style. Simply take the last few thongs you learned well and assess HOW you learned those things so easily. Not scientific, but accurate none the less.
2. Be prepared to put TIME into learning – it’s not like the way they learn things in the Matrix – it takes time.
3. Have a place/person to go to for “direction”. This is best as a personal expert, but can also be on-line social networks like Twitter/FB or Forums or something in-between.
That’s it.
So, what are you learning these days? 