One night when we were eating dinner, my daughter was making a huge mess while attempting to eat yogurt with a spoon. Maybe a quarter of the yogurt was actually going into her mouth. My son was very concerned about this and told me how she was making this really big mess. My immediate response – it’s OK, honey, she’s learning.
My daughter was learning how to eat with a spoon. She was learning the coordination it takes to pick up a spoon, dip it into an odd shaped plastic container, balance a dollop of yummy yogurt and aim it for her mouth, all why trying not to get it everywhere. She would not learn this overnight. Actually, it would take many attempts – days or months or years (hopefully not!) to figure out how to use that spoon until eventually one day, she does not even have to think about how to use it – she just uses the spoon to get what she wants.
Why doesn’t this same principle work for us? When we are learning a new skill, or starting a new job, or going back to school, or creating a new blog :), or attempting to learn anything new, we expect ourselves to learn quickly and know how to do it right away! We do not give ourselves the time it takes to master a new skill – we want to be experts immediately!
Maybe you are jumping into new territory and learning many new things all at once. Maybe you are beginning a new project and the learning curve is huge.
Learning new things takes time. We might make a big mess – A HUGE MESS 🙂 Maybe we are only able to figure out a little bit at a time, but if we keep trying, and practicing, likely making a few mistakes along the way, eventually, we just might figure it out.
For now, maybe we just need to tell ourselves – It Is OK, We Are Learning!
CC image courtesy of D. Sharon Pruitt