How To Enjoy Learning Something New
Ways to Stay Motivated as You Learn and How to Adjust to Stay Engaged
Whenever one tries out a new skill, a lot of times they get frustrated when it doesn’t turn out the way that they envisioned. It makes them feel incompetent, dumb, and hurt when they are vulnerable. How do we break out of the mindset of learning something just to gain skill versus self-improvement for the simple joy of learning?
It comes down to personal taste and what processes engage us at a level that is enjoyable. In fact, learning at our skill level will often help us stay focused and in-the-moment. Happiness is only found in the present. Whereas depression is when we spend too much time focused on the past, and anxiety is with us when we spend too long focused on the future. We get frustrated in trying out a new skill when we either focus too much on the time and effort spent in the past, or when we become impatient thinking about how long it will take to reach the goals that we set out for ourselves in the future.
Take these drawing books for example. Some people like to draw cute kawaii drawings because they can be done quickly, and they often personify inanimate objects, making the world around them feel more whimsical and worthy of adoration. This kind of drawing often takes less general skill to learn how to do, making it a good pursuit for someone who is newer to drawing, and for someone needing to feel a sense of accomplishment sooner.
People that are more skilled might need more difficult skills to learn in order to stay engaged. If they don’t, they get bored. There is this concept of a state of flow, where happiness is found, in that we reach that state when what we are doing has a challenge that just meets our current skill level. Too difficult of a challenge makes us feel overwhelmed, and thus we disengage, and too little of a challenge leaves us uninspired. Being in flow keeps us more in the present.
In the example given around drawing, someone who has been drawing for a while might feel the kawaii drawings aren’t interesting enough to keep their focus. However, they may find learning how to draw hyper realistic plants and flowers to be a skill to aspire too, prompting them to try something new out. While it is more time consuming, someone around this skill level has likely already felt a sense of accomplishment around drawing, so their tolerance for putting time into this skill is greater than beginners. Also, as one develops more difficult skills, the inherent sense of pride at the end of the task is usually greater, because they know how difficult this is, they have felt it!
Now whether or not you want to go down to the Chandler Fashion Center mall’s Barnes & Noble, off of Chandler Boulevard and the 101 freeway, and pick up these drawings books for yourself, or try out another skill is entirely up to you. Notice what things you are even remotely interested in learning and try it out. If it leaves you frustrated, chances are that you need to learn something at a lower skill level in that area first. If you get bored, it could be that you need to learn a skill that is more challenging, or you need something quicker to learn, so that way you feel a small sense of accomplishment to keep learning.
Some skills have few stopping points for feeling accomplished. This is where you need to create a sense of accomplishment for yourself. Hype yourself up. Romanticize your learning process. Talk about it with someone. Post it on social media. Write a blog on your process, or just write about it in a journal. Give yourself something to look back on to notice the progress and growth within yourself!
