Achieving the unachievable, one step at a time

All of us want to do things in our lives which go beyond the scope of our present career choices. But how close have we gotten to those goals which we have stuffed on the back of our minds? I am sure most of us would get to the same answer, that we are not any closer than we were a few years back. So how do we start? How can a finance professional learn to code and develop his own apps when he has been thinking about doing it for many years.

Today I will share a very useful insight about how to achieve the seemingly unachievable. I recently took an extremely delightful course from Coursera called “Learning How to Learn”. You can skim through the course yourself if you would want to. I have learned some things in this course which were absolutely new to me. All of us know the same old tips about learning but when we find out the scientific proof behind them, that is when we truly appreciate their significance and this happened to me in this course.

I have always dreaded Maths throughout my life, although I was able to achieve good grades by preparing with all my efforts a few days before the exam, but I have never quite liked the subject and most things fall out of my mind a few days after my exam. My friends asked me to practice as much as I could because it would make me better, but I thought why should I practice so much when I am already getting good grades? Now I am a finance professional, my entire career might be about crunching numbers and I still hate Maths. If I wanted to carry on something of professional value as a hobby, I would love to make my own apps, and that too requires a lot of learning about coding and what not. So I have been thinking about learning Java and coding for many years and yet I have not done anything in this regard, primarily because I do not like Maths and I end up procrastinating.

Now let me share the most significant thing that I have learned in this course and that is “Practice Makes Permanence”. You can roll your eyes and say that you knew this already, and I did too but you might not know why it matters. You see, when we talk about a cow, your mind can instantaneously visualize the image of a cow, but mathematical concepts do not have anything analogous in real life, we cannot visualize plus signs or algebraic equations. So in order to become a pro in Maths you need lots of practice.

Dr. Barbara Oakley shared in the course that every time we think about something new, the neurons in our brain align to form a thought pattern and this pattern is very weak initially. But once we start to practice this thought again and again it becomes more permanent. Instead of cramming in all the information at once a few days before exams, like I used to do. It is much better to take it in small chunks which will make vivid and clear thought patterns in our minds and help us vastly whenever we have to deal with the same subject again.

Aside from this emphasis on practice, she also talked about diffused and focused modes of our mind. In focused mode, our mind is at its best in thinking capability. We have access to all areas of our brain and we are fully present mentally. It is very good for analytical thinking but sometimes when we want to get new ideas it might be too distracting. So in diffused mode, our mind is in a relaxed state. We can think about the subject but in a very passive mode of thinking. It is like enjoying a cup of tea while thinking lightly about your project on the back of your mind. The diffused mode is very useful when your mind is stressed up from consistent thinking in focused mode.

I have heard a lot of people telling me to practice as much as I could in order to truly grasp the concepts but I never listened to them. Maybe because I was getting good grades, I did not stop to think about the significance of practice and the fact that I forgot most of the concepts I jotted down in my exams. I have planned to incorporate as much practice as I can when I learn something new from now on. Specifically, I am very clear in my mind that in order to learn coding, I will need to practice a lot because this time, I won’t be studying for grades, rather I would be studying for myself.