Hey 👋 I'm Juan, and lately I've encountered myself with a question that doesn't stop repeating in different ways. Why don't we learn? How do we learn? How do I learn? This is a reflection of mine where I want to share how I learn and why. So if you are interested, keep reading 👇

Why 🤔?

The other day I found myself arguing with my partner. We talked, and I went for a walk to think. While I was walking, this question came to my mind. Why do I always find myself arguing over the same things? Why don't I learn? How do we learn? I started wondering, and to be honest, the only answer that I could find to this question is... because it hurts.

Learning Always Hurts 🤕

I remember when I started to learn how to play the piano. I was so excited. For some reason, most of the time, I have this wonderful idea in my mind where I imagine myself being awesome on the first try. But in the end, it always strikes me. It's almost impossible to be good or at least as good as we want on the first try. If I had to compare the feeling, I would say that it is like when you like someone and your feelings are not reciprocated. It's frustrating; it destroys you.

How Do We Keep Going? 🚶‍♂️

If we accept that conclusion, that learning always hurts, how is it possible that there are things that we learn and others that just don't seem to be understandable or acquirable? That was my second thought. A couple of days later, it came to me—it’s because there are things that are worth it and some that are not.

Let's say I have the cure for a sickness that has been torturing you for years, but the cure will make you suffer even worse pain for months. Would you take it? I say yes, but I had to think about it for a while before answering. I guess the same happens in life; sometimes there are things that are worth tolerating just because we value what is at the end of the line much more.

What Is at the End of the Line? 🏁

But now there's another question (yep, another one). What's at the end of the line and why do some of us value it so much?

When I was learning to play the piano, it was hard, harder than most of the things that I've done before. It’s funny because I've done things that most people would say are more complicated. I won against obesity and got the physique that most of us want. I learned English, some Japanese, and I've been learning new things almost daily for the last few years. I've confronted death and my social awkwardness. These are really hard things that required planning, discipline, and a ton of effort.

But most of the time, there was something bigger at the end of the line. Learning to play the piano, solve the Rubik's cube in less than 15 seconds, or program was motivated by an ideal, a dream, or even fun. The frustration was surpassed by what was at the end.

I know this may seem obvious when we put it into words, but as you keep reading, you'll notice how we disparage this concept when we have to learn, either from experience or because of a goal.

After analyzing all these points, I noticed that in all the hard things that I've conquered, I always repeat the same pattern.

When I was learning how to program, there were a bunch of things at the end of the line. I needed the money, I wanted to create things of my own, my friends were developers, and I had a dream. I'll never forget how I started learning Japanese. I didn’t want to, but you know what I wanted? To prove my mother wrong. She told me that I couldn't do it, that it was too hard for me, and that I would quit. Surprise, surprise, it’s the end of the year, and I’m the best student in the entire course.

So if you want to learn something and you don't know why you are not learning or keeping up with the process, ask yourself what's at the end of the line?

How I Do It 🎉

Nice, we had a beautiful walk around my past and childhood traumas. Now we can talk about how I do it. It’s worth mentioning that what I'm going to explain now are things that I noticed I do unconsciously, without looking for them. But they appear in every skill that I've conquered.

Surround Yourself 🌍

If you had peeked at my phone when I was trying to learn piano, you’d have seen that my entire YouTube feed was: "How to learn piano faster," "How to read music sheets," "Basic piano chords," and so on. If you had talked to me back then, I would explain to you how I spent hours practicing.

I had my piano in my office, in front of my desk, so each time I looked away, there it was, my piano calling me. I forced myself to be obsessed with it, always thinking about it. I started taking classes, and I practiced every weekend for hours.

That's what I mean when I say surround yourself. Give yourself the ease of always thinking about that thing that you want to conquer.

Make the Process Fun⛷️

Most of us come to this conclusion that it has to be hard or horrible to learn or conquer something. Why?

When I was learning how to solve the Rubik's cube, I had to practice for hours. So each time I had to start practicing, I would have a new playlist to listen to or an interesting podcast to hear. So in that way, it was way funnier and more entertaining to practice.

But probably the best way to learn something new is by combining this new thing with some of your other passions. For example, now my girlfriend is trying to learn how to create better logos. She needs to practice quite a lot. She loves photography and social media. In fact, she is also trying to become a community manager. So I suggested that she combine the three things together, making learning all of them a much funnier and easier process.

How can she combine it? I said, take pictures of things that catch your attention when we walk on the street, make a logo with it, and upload it to social media, pretending that it is your own client that you have to manage.

Probably now, you are saying that in this case, it is easy and that you can't combine your new skill with your current set. I would strongly disagree; you need to think outside the box. Another example would be when I was learning trading (I don’t like trading; it’s too stressful, I don’t have the mindset or the character). I was also learning programming, so I decided to venture into a world I had never visited before: trading bots with Python and cryptos. I learned three new things looking for one.

By the way, you can start a project to learn, and that doesn't mean that you have to finish it. I see a bunch of people stressing out because they started a project to learn and didn’t finish. Why? Did you learn? If the answer is yes, great, you did it. Move on.

Last but not least, get to know yourself. For me, it is easier to learn something if I can transform it into a mechanical process that I can grind and repeat over and over again. But maybe you are more creative and enjoy learning while creating something new. Pay attention to these things and try to adapt whatever you want to learn.

Find Competition 🏎️

This advice is not for everyone, but just for those like me who love the motivation of knowing that out there, someone is doing better than you.

When I was learning how to solve the Rubik's cube, there was a boy at my school, younger than me, who did it faster. I came to resent him. This was an excellent motivation. I couldn't stop thinking about winning against him, so I practiced and practiced and practiced until the point where I was so fast that there was no way for him to win.

In the end, we never really competed. When I went looking for him to compete, he had gotten bored and stopped practicing. So the competition was always in my mind.

Summarizing📝

So in the end, I came to the conclusion that we all learn because we find motives that emotionally connect with us. These motives are greater than the frustration that comes with learning something new, and some ways to make your learning process easier are:

1. Systematize - Make it repeatable and create patterns to repeat.
2. Find motivation - Get to know yourself and ask how you learn.
3. Force yourself to obsess over your goal - Find a way to always think about that thing.
4. Introspection - Look at yourself and pay attention to your experience learning.

Did You Enjoy It?

If you enjoyed it and found something useful in this post, please take a minute and make a donation. You have no idea how helpful and motivating this is for me.

[----------------------------------------] 0% of $20, let's buy me a book

Also, if you want to start a SAAS, need help with your code, or with your learning process, talk to me -> let's talk. I'm sure we can make something together.

As always, I would really appreciate it if you could follow me or give me a like.

Credit

Did you like the picture in the post? Why don't you go and check out Cedar Wheeler