Stop me if this sounds familiar:
You're interested in a certain career or hobby. You're excited as hell! So you hop on Amazon and you buy every Kindle book under $3.00 to learn how to do said career or hobby.
You hop on you Youtube and watch videos on how to achieve said career or hobby. And you watch and read, and read and watch, till you lose interest and move on to the next shiny bobble that catches your attention and repeat the cycle.
THIS WAS ME!
For years I would do this to myself. It got to the point that it became a running joke between my friends.
And the worst part about it is, they weren't wrong!
See, under the guise of "being prepared" I never actually pursued my goals. At least not until I quit "learning" and started "doing!"
It wasn't till I decided to physically DO SOMETHING along with research, that I became the naughty techie that I am today! I had to put down the the books (well, more like iPad with Kindle app) and actually:
- Download the Linux OS I needed!
- Install the necessary programs required!
- And most importantly, practice my ass off!
I had to DO SOMETHING!
When you're an infant, you don't read books on how to walk, you just fumble your way about, fall on your ass many times, and eventually you are walking!
Most of this stems from 2 things. Fear and Laziness
FEAR
For those of us who went to college, we all remember "the fear."
Leaving the safe haven of campus life. Having to go out in the cruel real world of responsibilities and bills.
In fact, there are some people I like to call "professional students." These are people are people who do things like get multiple Master degrees or Doctorates. People who stay in school most of their adult life, never putting into practice what they spent all the years in school learning!
This fear isn't really a fear of responsibilities or "real life," it's a fear of failing!
We don't want to fail, so we feel by "learning" as much as we can, when we FINALLY start "doing," we will have nothing but success!
The problem with this thinking is that, you CANNOT SUCCEED without failing first. Most new things you try you are going to suck at!
But ironically, that's where you really learn! By application, not just studying.
On the other end of this is...
LAZINESS
There isn't much a philosophical point here! You have to be motivated to succeed. However you come by the motivation is entirely up to you!
But if you have a passion for something or even just a strong interest, you have to get off the couch and stop "reading" and make that shit happen!
SOMETHING THAT MIGHT HELP
Fear and laziness aside, sometimes it's just a matter of being of undisciplined. Some of us need more of a routine than others.
Something that helped me tremendously when trying to get my career started:
- Schedule everything: A time to read and a time to physically apply!
- Practice more than I read!
- Kill ALL distractions for a certain time period (not people of course!)
- Learn as quickly as I could so that I wouldn't become stuck!
- Practice Practice Practice!
This became my regiment for months. And I had to really commit to it!
Anyway
The funny thing about failing is, you can only go up from there! And you are going to fail! Over and over and over, you are going to grit your teeth and curse at walls! No amount of reading is going to prevent this!
But when it's all said and done, you are going to be the one in your field ahead of the curve!
I hope was useful guys!
Some great clips in there. Routine is key and it's so hard to stick to stuff at times! Thanks for the post, fellow #theunmentionables. :)
agree with you.
Glad you liked it!
Haha so true! So easy to fall into procrastination by preparation, rather than just getting stuff done!
Like all the gifs /clips you use too!
Cheers
yes so true, The funny thing about failing is, you can only go up from there! And you are going to fail! Over and over and over, you are going to grit your teeth and curse at walls! No amount of reading is going to prevent this!
But when it's all said and done, you are going to be the one in your field ahead of the curve!
That's me! I did a masters so I didn't have to go out in the real world. I think I can safely say that university days were amongst happiest of my life. I love to learn. But now it is time for the doing as my head is truly an encyclopedia. #theunmentionables
Doing is usually harder than learning!
"She knows there’s no success like failure
And that failure’s no success at all."
Appropriate quote (from Mr. Dylan, of course,) selected for you by your friendly neighbourhood feline mustelid.
#theunmentionables
- slogan of the "Experiential Learning" movement in pedagogy
Books are great, perusing their knowledge can take you so far, but only so far.
Rote learning is too passive; didactic - useful, but too unstructured. Both of these approaches have their place: preparation and review. Their usefulness tends to stall beyond baseline knowledge reinforcement, but can at least provide some foundation. To gain real insight requires commitment to active engagement.
Active learning synthesises concrete experience into new learning in volo by observation, reflection, and analysis.
Learning how to learn is among the most valuable lessons. You've provided some good tips on how to achieve this, including acceptance that you will not always 'win' but if you turn an analytical eye upon the knowledge received then you have not failed but rather gained something, and in such way will ever be a winner.
I really envy to those had oppoturnity to learn,went to kolej,uni..so lucky..
#theunmentionables
Well, i think lot of us are stuck there. I learned so many things in my life and felt what you said at some point. Boredom and lack of interest, even if i liked that thing, seeing it so many times and reading it so much, took you in a place where when you want to apply it, you said meah... or later ;-)
And later became later and later, always.
The things that i had the chance to apply were giving satisfaction. I learned in '99 to work in 3D, and it was hell of a fun, but not having a good computer i just studied later on so many times without having a chance to practice.
The same with other things i did. Without practice you neither learn it better neither achieve nothing. Losing 2 times and winning none...
Still, in this days i love 3D and photography but money keep me away from this best things i love. No i don't have time to waste like in faculty and i just work and read or watch utube.
Here on steemit is kinda first time when i took action.
I hope that i will have the power in real life to take action for some drastic changes... who knows...
Your posts made me to also follow you, hope will see again posts from you.
Cheers
#theunmentionables
Thank you so much! Really glad you liked it. Yeah I wrote this from very personal experience!
Cheers and lot of smiles
;-)
this post also nice because, The funny thing about failing is, you can only go up from there! And you are going to fail! Over and over and over, you are going to grit your teeth and curse at walls! No amount of reading is going to prevent this!
But when it's all said and done, you are going to be the one in your field ahead of the curve!
This post has received a 0.63 % upvote from @drotto thanks to: @banjo.
Much appreciated!
I've been guilty of this a few times myself, so many tutorial books and videos downloaded that eventually went to waste. Engaging in the action is always much better. The gifs you put in there were funny.
Yep, lots of Youtube and PDFs! Happy you liked the post!
Seriously @suicidalviral? Where have you been my entire life? Ok so I like to Inspire and motivate, as I read your post some things that I do in my life suddenly made sense, I can compound learn and learn and study up and try and test and then one day suddenly I will be onto the next subject. One thing that I think I don't have is Laziness, I do, and I do alot I do wayyy to much and sometimes have my fork way too full. I feel so busy and sometimes it is not even with something that even matters anymore but I started it so I will try and finish it while busy with something new already. I think it is time to empty the fork a little after reading this. mmmm
I think the people who fall into the Laziness category are a small number. Most people just afraid to get started. Thanks for the reply hun!
I have a friend who always tell me I suffer from Paralysis by analysis... so I can definitely relate to your experience. Overthinking can sometimes be doubt in disguise.
Paralysis by Analysis.... I like that!
Great post, thank you!
I think there are two sides to this, you should always strive to get more knowledge and you should never stop reading books and educational information. From the other side, you cant lie to yourself and think that if you will know enough you can succeed. You need to work your ass off and learn from experience and fail some!
Nothing comes easy.
Please check my new post, I think you will like it!
@paps
Oh I'm not saying you shouldn't study and know your shit. I just mean, it's not enough to do just that. Happy you liked the post!
Exactly :)
Awesome post, no reason not to like it!
Great post! Thanks. I think fear and paralysis have a lot to do with how you treat your inner child. It's about allowing it to play and experiment without judging. I've found that writing free association helps quiet down the rational judgemental mind and allows you to connect with the more creative parts of your brain.
Great share of experience.
Having a routine, a system rewarding you daily is a must!
Thanks! Great advice and enjoyed the pictures too!
Have a wonderful day and I will take your advice and practice more today than learn!
Yes , I am in the circle of reading , watching and moving on to the next shiny bobble.
Thank for sharing for this article, my friend.
I always make everything with
GREAT ATTITUDE