According to psychology, there are four steps to acquiring mastery over a new set of skills.* At first, you don’t know what you don’t know: ignorance is bliss. But then the thorny second stage begins, and there’s a wave of overwhelm as you realize just how much you don’t know. I’m in this stage now and it’s very tempting to hide my head under a pillow and ditch the whole process. Beginning again is tough.
Adult Learners Are Different.
Having experience as an elementary school teacher wasn’t as useful as I thought it would be, when I became an adult student. Adults and children learn differently:
“Children and adults are very different when it comes to how they learn, so different techniques must be used in order to make learning effective for adults. In addition to reading and memorizing, adult learners utilize their past life experiences and their current understanding of a subject as they learn. Also, adult learning needs to be problem-centered, making the impact more focused on current events or real life.”**
Learning As An Adult
I’m taking comfort from recalling previous times when I’ve had to learn a whole new process as an adult and not just an isolated skill. I learned to drive in my mid-thirties, long after most people my age had acquired the skills. I became aware of all that I didn’t know about driving, in a room with a bunch of younger people in driver’s education classes. I nervously practiced my parking and lane changes each week with my driving instructor. It was stressful and I remember some tears.
A Goal Was Key
At the time, it seemed that there was so much to learn and master, I didn’t think I’d ever be comfortable driving on my own. But that was the key to surviving the process, I had a goal of learning to drive so that I could get my own car. Independence and freedom lay ahead of me, when I mastered the skills and passed all the tests. It was my carrot that kept me moving through the tough stuff.
Understanding The Process
Knowing that developing competency in any skill will take me through the same stages is comforting to a degree. It’s a double-edged sword: I know there will be a predictable path, but I also know that the path will be challenging. After finding out how much I don’t know, there is the hard work of concentrating and practicing the new skills. That’s like the stage of driving where I couldn’t have the radio on at the same time because I needed to focus intently on my new skills. It’s exhausting!
Having A Goal
Now that I’m in the second stage of developing competence in my new career, I plan to focus on the light at the end of the tunnel rather than the hard work ahead. The promise of my own car got me through the tough months of driving without the radio on. The promise of a new career is beckoning me ahead.
What was your “carrot” that got you moving though the tough stages of learning new skills? Comment below.
*https://www.mccc.edu/~lyncha/documents/stagesofcompetence.pdf
**Click here to learn more about effective ways to teach adults.
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