Embrace The Confusion
Photo by Cristina Gottardi on Unsplash
The reality of the learning process is that it’s often non-linear and, most importantly, unpredictable.
There’s a tendency to think of it (hope?) as a “paint-by-numbers” approach: follow these steps and you’ll get to your destination. And while aspects of learning are indeed structured and conventional in that sense, many others are not. That, in so many respects, is where real learning happens.
With real learning, uncertainty is a given. You may well know your desired destination but you don’t know the path to get there. So, you form your ideas and hypotheses, and test them. See what works, and what doesn’t. Rinse and repeat until you figure it out.
It’s no different even if you do know the path to get there (or think you do). The reality of the world around us is that things are always changing so the tools and tactics that have worked in the past won’t necessarily work again. So, you keep going, trial and error, again, until you figure it out.
Central to this process is confusion - the inevitable sense that we don’t know what we’re doing, that things aren’t moving as smoothly as we’d like (or at all).
Our reaction to this confusion is what determines whether we find our way or not.
Too often, we end up fearing this confusion. We don’t welcome it or, when it happens, we judge ourselves and our ability to find our way. And as a result, we stop mid-process or worse, not even try in the first place. And that’s tragic.
The fact is that that confusion is necessary. It’s a sign that our brains are trying to figure things out - which, at some point, it will. And when it does, we not only figure out what it is we’re trying to learn (or get to the destination we’re after) but we add to our confidence going forward as well.
Then the next time we’re faced with a difficult situation, we’re in a better place. We know we’ve done it before, so we’re more likely to believe we can do it again.
For a myriad of reasons, though, we’re not usually programmed to embrace the confusion. The process of learning isn’t celebrated as an adventure, something to look forward to. Instead, it’s a task to get over with.
If we can change that mindset, though, then we’re in business.
