“Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.” ―Abigail Adams.
With the world working from home now, everyone is jumping on the webinar and virtual conference bandwagon, the race is on. I’ve signed up for a lot of webinars but rarely make them with meetings and projects taking precedent. Last week, I actually listened to half a webinar that Salesforce sponsored with one of my favorite authors Brené Brown on resilience. The one thing that stuck from the conversation was her recommendation to be a learner not a knower during this time. When we are in a learning mindset, we drop our assumptions, old views and make space for unknowing and growth, looking at things in a new way.
We crave meaning, especially during adversity, uncertainty and change. We want the lesson, the reason, the answers. If we know everything or think we do, we lose the capacity to be surprised, to see the same in a different way, to see patterns, clues and clues, to dare to be a beginner, open to expanding our view.
When we frame purpose as lofty, big and overarching, we get stuck and don’t start because we don’t know where to start. Being a learner is a good start. By breaking down the abstract concept of purpose into concrete daily steps of trying, learning, tasks to piece together that accumulate into the whole. By breaking it down into chunks, we make it a tangible pursuit, achievable.
Let go of knowing, perfection, old stories, rules and assumptions. Listen. Talk less. Lean back and observe how the new pieces fit together. Be a learner first so you can get to a new knowing. The road unfolds with action, repetition and exploration. Try, every day. There’s the secret shortcut.
“If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?” – Albert Einstein