Soil Before Seeds

“In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” – Eric Hoffer

Great learners can adapt, solve problems, work through setbacks, build new skills.

Learners are resilient. Learners are agile.

No matter who we are or what we do, becoming a better learner is a good idea. It might be the most important skill we can build.

And the best news: Learning is a skill. One that anyone can get better at.

How do we do that though?

Just like any skill, learning requires practice. The best way to get the ball rolling is to do these four things:

Change the way we view struggle
The right amount of struggle is the key ingredient for growth: it’s the price of admission if we want to change.

Build a growth mindset
The belief that we can grow and change is essential. It fuels and sustains our actions.

Give yourself permission to feel tough emotions
Change and struggle feel weird. We need to understand that the ‘weird’ is normal. So many times we assume it’s a sign that we’re not ready, that we don’t belong, that we’re doing something wrong. The truth is that emotional response means we care, that we’re stretching, and that we’re human.

Find meaning and opportunities within challenges
In every situation there’s something that can help us grow in one way or another. With practice, we can get better at finding these opportunities. This is NOT fake positivity. We need to identify the opportunities without minimizing the magnitude or difficulty of the challenge, and without suppressing or denying our tough emotions. This happened, this hurts…now how can this help me grow?

These four skills create the soil for great learning.

As we build these skills, we improve the soil. Better soil = more growth for the seeds we plant.

If you want to get better at getting better, start here. Work the soil, then start planting seeds.

To explore more, visit these topic hubs:

Struggle & Training Ugly Hub
Growth Mindset Hub
Emotional Intelligence Hub