Learning About Learning

George Leonard once said:

Start with something simple. Try touching your forehead with your hand. Ah, that’s easy, automatic. Nothing to it. But there was a time when you were as far removed from the mastery of that simple skill as a non-pianist is from playing a Beethoven sonata.

First, you had to learn to control the movements of your hands (you were just a baby then) and somehow get them to move where you wanted them to. You had to develop some sort of kinesthetic "image" of your body so that you could know the relationship between your forehead and other parts of your body.

You had to learn to match this image with the visual image of an adult’s body. You had to learn how to mimic your mother’s actions. Momentous stuff, make no mistake about it.

I have come to realize that there is more to this particular area of knowledge and learning then meets the eye. There are a lot of things that aren't apparent when you first start learning something. Newbie's; when they first start learning something they always want to start out learning the tricks, they always want to learn the flashy techniques first. Well; once you learn those flashy techniques you find out that there is something more to it, they don't always work, there is something deeper.

In my life I have found from my own personal interests when you study to attain a Master's qualification and devote many years of your life to it you must first begin at the core level. As a Musician you must first, learn Scales. As a Martial Artist you must first learn Respect. As a Dancer you must first learn, Timing.

When you train, study and practice advancing in one of your interests; are you going to choose mediocrity or excellence? Are you going to be average or are you going to be excellent, 'The Best'? I personally like to choose excellence, when I do things, I am serious about them and I am going to do what ever it takes to make it happen, I just take the model of, 'Why don't I do the best one that has ever been done'. Why not be the best in the world. Some people might say, "Isn't that kind of an arrogant statement?". Well I didn't say I was going to run out and start telling everybody that I am the best in the world. It's my inner choice, Excellence, why not shoot for the best in the world... The best ever.

When you start out learning these basic core skills you might find them un-necessary and boring but as a Master you will find them essential. As you progress in your skill level from an absolute beginner you find that you do not consciously have to think anymore of the steps that you had to learn in your previous skill level to advance further. It becomes apart of you and you of it.

When you learn and hence evolve from one level or knowledge to the next, you do not escape the level that was below it. What happens is that you integrate it and then you transcend it. You can go there anytime you want. It is still part of who you are and where you once were. Accept, Integrate and then Transcend. It's a great strategy.

Too many people want to learn everything, instead of doing anything to learn. When they have challenges getting started they default to learn more before doing. Which is often a way of creatively avoiding. They think they have to work through everything in their mind before they can act.

If you only rely on the informational way of learning you will limit your success by more than 95%. The best way of learning I have found is to Plan, Do, Study and then Act. Plan what you are going to do, then DO IT, then Study what you did and then Act on what you learned. Then make a new Plan and thus the circle repeats.

Masters can walk into any situation and appear to create magic. It looks like they are getting lucky far too often. Doing the obvious thing does not always serve you. The nature of wisdom and expertise is very counterintuitive. It's counterintuitive. This means doing the thing that seems like the thing to do, isn't the thing that works. Doing the thing that seems like it won't work is often the road to success.

You will find that Masters in all fields often do things that are very counterintuitive. 80% of what they will do, you will go, "Oh yeah, that makes perfect sense it's obvious". The other 20% is very counterintuitive, but the counterintuitive stuff is done at all those critical moments. The best thing to do in a situation isn't usually the obviously thing. Masters do counterintuitive things, things that wouldn't be natural for others. The Master makes success look almost effortless; which leads novices to falsely assume that what they are doing is easy and simple.

Don't be fooled into believing that it is not complex just because it looks easy. When you spend years combining expertise, experience, great mentors and access to great advise you will start getting lucky all the time. In your mind right now I want you to put a little mental note that when your watching a Master do something that you don't know how to do it is going to look easy, but don't let that illusion fool you. Don't let that fool you. It only looks easy.

If you first fail when you start learning something do not be discouraged. The sure fire way to eliminate failure is to learn from it. If something comes up and you consider it a failure. If you then immediately say, 'What did I learn...?' As soon as the idea even starts you have now eliminated the failure from your life. You can eliminate failure forever by learning from it. I tell you a lesson that you have learned is priceless and I don't care what it is. Never be fool enough to deny admitting your personal failings because the lessons that are often the hardest learned are the ones that are the least forgotten.

Take control of your personal evolution. Take control of your personal evolution. Take control of your personal evolution. Seek the history of the things you are interested in learning and become a student of your interests. After learning how the current models have evolved and becoming competent you begin to have what I like to call 'Future Vision' and you will be able to see how things will evolve. This will lead to what I will call Situation Predictive Powers. You will be able to see the possible scenario outcomes and then behave accordingly. The most important place to use this is in your own life, review your own personal evolution and then take control of it in the future. Evolution means not only to evolve but to transcend and to then include.

One of the most fascinating things that I have learned is that when you really Master something and you really get into it and you learn everything about it. What happened in the past and how things got to the point that they are at now and you learn a lot of different ways of looking at it. You also learn different models, sometimes conflicting ideas. You begin to become like Neo in the movie 'The Matrix'. You begin to be able to see the future, you can see the way things are going to turn out before they happen.

Do not be in a rush. Most people are interested in getting instant results. Humans are wired to value results that can be achieved with the least amount of effort right now not later. This leads many people to focus on the very lowest levels most of the time. Most people focus on situations and techniques. It's very rare to find a person who is even interested in seeking new skills and understanding never mind about high levels such as reality, identity and beliefs. If you only focus on situations, and techniques but you keep the self image and belief system of a person who doesn't deserve success or who hasn't mastered the core concepts of their interests what do you think is going to happen...? The higher levels effect all the levels below them.. So where do you think you should focus most of your energy?

I believe humans are wired for short terms results. Humans want instant gratification and it is at such a deep level because if you didn't do things that got instant results 100K years ago; you died. You didn't live through it. This is why I think instant gratification is at such a core level and I have termed this our Dark Psychology. So it is an important thing to remember that when you are wrestling with these things. You are going to have to face the feelings of 'I want instant results' and the opposing concept of investing time.

Most people are very uncomfortable with ambiguity, uncertainty or paradox. So they want one or the other, they want to use one for security and to get over to one side. That is, is she my girlfriend or not?. Are we moving closer together or further apart?. I have found that VERY successful business people tend to have a common trait in being able to deal with paradox and still operate effectively. They can hold two opposing thoughts in their mind and then still ACT.

it has only been the last 100 or so years that Evolution has become conscious of itself. Charles Darwin (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) came up with the concept of Evolution. Up until that point, Evolution had not been conscious of itself. So it could not become a progressive feed-forward loop at the level that it can today. I personally consider 'Evolution' the greatest discovery of all time. I think that the concept of Evolution is so massively powerful and I am not talking about the ... did we evolve from Monkeys or Apes or did God create the World in 7 Days theory. I am talking about Evolution as a process of being able to Evolve, Refine, get Better and more Effective. If you have Evolved to the point in your life where you embrace the idea of taking control of your own Evolution then you MUST become an expert in programming and re-programming yourself.

A practical model for this is what I call objectifying your Demons. Ken Wilber says when you objectify one of your Demons meaning you describe it, you talk about it, you analyze it, you pick it apart.... You effectively strip it of it's power to run your life. You then become it's Master instead of it being yours.

You basically reframe it by chunking down. Objectifying, Describing and Analyzing is a way of reframing and it's very powerful because you begin to realize that this Demon that has previously ruled your life is nothing more than a idea, a concept, a mind virus, or a programmed response. It is an emotional reaction that you can take control of. I want to ask you, what are you personal Demons...?