Learning to fail

To be a learner, you’ve got to be willing to be a fool

- George Leonard Mastery

The past few days have been spent stumbling my way through conversations. I’m not going to sugarcoat it, my German is painfully bad right now, but I am working on it. Step by step, through the many mispronunciations and misunderstandings I am getting better. To anyone back at Union who speaks a second language, my hat goes off to you. I didn’t understand the difficulties of acquiring a second language until attempting it now.

It is all too easy to mix up languages, or replace words with homonyms or say something that is correct in English but translated makes no sense at all. Throughout my stiff conversations in German, the above quote has come to mind. It is from a really great book, Mastery by George Leonard, which offers an interesting perspective on learning. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in such topics. It really opened my eyes to the importance of this awkward phase of learning. While learning a language blanking on terms, butchering words, and the overall confusion is just part of the process.

In the book, Leonard explains that learning takes place through a series of plateaus and peaks. The plateaus are the practice time put in. They are the long hours spent hunched over a desk, sitting at the piano bench or alone on the field. Even though these moments are far from glamorous, they are the most important. 

Still, the peaks get most of the attention. These are moments where there are breakthroughs or a sudden gust of progress are sharp spikes in the learning process. I often find myself striving after peaks, trying to find shortcuts or other ways to fast-track the route to success. 

However, the problem is that the further along a person gets in a particular skill the fewer peaks occur. In the beginning stages of learning it is easy to make progress because the tasks are fairly simple. As things become more and more complex, huge successes become rarer. The gratification of breakthroughs becomes more delayed. When this occurs people often burn out. 

This burnout can be prevented. Leonard recommends that the actual process of learning has to become more enjoyable than feeling success. As I push myself to try new things and learn new skills I find that I agree with this mentality more and more.

I remember when I was first learning how to ski my mother told me, “If you’re not falling you're not learning.” I accepted the fact that I would fall, that I would look silly, and that I would ache at the end of the day. Soon enough I got over my fear of falling. The aphorism has since become a sort of mantra for myself. 

 People need to push themselves. When a person starts to fear failure they limit themselves. They are afraid to go on to the next level of learning because once again they might look foolish. So whether it be falling on the ski slope, trying to learn soccer, or saying you’re ninety when you mean nineteen, I encourage you to fail. Fail and then keep reaching for your goals, keep trying, keep learning.