“ One of the reasons people stop learning is that they become less and less willing to risk failure.” -- John W. Gardner
This brings into play one of my favorite things. Play like a kid again.
The reason you cannot teach an old dog new tricks is because the older we get the more we need to learn it the first time. Because as adults, if we make one screw up, we often give up. With the first mistake we say, I cannot do this and quit trying to learn.
Imagine if a kid fell down once when learning to walk and then gave up because they couldn’t do it?
Or if when learning how to speak or build something, people gave up after the first mistake?
We would all be completely unable to care for ourselves.
But most adults function as if they shouldn’t ever make a mistake when learning something new and often give up after the first mistake.
And if they don’t give up after the first mistake, they often give up after a few mistakes.
So what do you do? Play like a kid again. Kids try and try until they learn how to do it. Don’t worry about the mistakes and keep trying until you get it. Learn from the mistakes as learning opportunities and keep moving forward.
Because then you can teach an old dog new tricks. |
