Bruce Campbell via Flickr

Learning Slow

Society often highlights the fast learners, those with an inherit ability to pick things up. Not everyone is a fast learner, but even those who don’t possess this gift can become great. They just need to remember a few things.

A couple months ago, I took a leap and bought a car with a manual transmission. I love cars, and so the idea of switching from automatic to stick seemed like a cakewalk. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

It took me over a month and a half to get to a point where I could drive in public. The shock of how difficult it was for me caused me to hate my car and to second guess my decision. I remember many evenings where I would slowly walk to the car in the middle of the night, always fighting the overwhelming desire to turn back home.

I stalled so many times I lost count. I made the clutch smell in ways that a clutch should never smell. My late-night driving caused many people to be late for their 1AM appointments. It felt like I was never going to get better.

Then one day, everything clicked. I went from driving cautiously at night to driving in busy daytime traffic in just over 24 hours. A couple days later, I was driving to work. My subsequent progress was a little less rapid, but I’d already crested the wave. I was good enough that it was fun.

My experience of learning to drive taught me a lot about learning in general. Everything I approach now, I approach with these rules:

1. There has to be a consequence: If I hadn’t learned to drive the car, it would have sat on a residential street looking out of place, and I would have to explain to everyone why I couldn’t pop over with my new set of wheels. The idea of not being able to drive the thing caused me to practice daily, even when I could think of millions of other things I’d rather do. The consequence can also be positive - I’ve encountered the same effect when I promise to reward myself for meeting a goal.
2. Don’t push yourself: This is the key differentiator between fast and slow learners, in my opinion. Fast learners will constantly push themselves beyond their comfort levels. Slow learners may just find themselves overwhelmed and disheartened. In my case, just taking the car around a residential block was sometimes enough.
3. Make it a routine: You may not have to push yourself quite as hard, but you do have to get the hours in. Try to adopt a daily or weekly pattern around whatever you are trying to learn.