I say it all the dang time. It’s impossible to run out of things to learn, even if you spend every waking moment of your life studying. Millions of books are out there looking for a friend. Hundreds of cultures are living in foreign countries, the depth of which you can’t even begin to understand.
I have at least a half-dozen priorities on my list of things to learn, like an instrument, a new language, and all the ideas rattling around in the books in my closet waiting patiently to be read. There are so many new opportunities and not enough time to attempt them all, which makes it difficult to put any type of learning goal into perspective. Which one do you start with? Who can I ask for help? When will I commit myself to it?
Everything starts off broad and daunting. After a single course, you could go from zero to conversational in any language you choose. It’s hard to imagine being able to do something that you don’t understand. This is where you must begin, though. Like listening to a new album, the first step comes with picking a song. The choice can be made by its popularity, how high it is on the list, the preview you heard from iTunes, or the last few seconds you heard on the radio. Once you have the song, it’s important to be patient and listen to more than just the first five or 10 seconds. If you dismiss the whole thing as less than great within such a short period of time, there’s a good chance you’ll miss the best part further into it. The same is true for everything else.
So there it is, the biggest step, the first one: choose. Choose multiple things if you like, but only if you can address them all equally. If not, then stick with the most important.
Know that learning is hard and takes time to master. No one learned how to play the piano like a pro in one day. It requires patience and persistence.
Step two: once you’ve made that decision, don't stop working towards the goal until it's met!
Giving up is so easy, and it feels better than it should. Some of the best daydreams are forgetting real life and imagining yourself lying on the grass listening to music, completely ignoring any and all immediate responsibilities. But an even better one is imagining yourself being the hero and succeeding at all of your goals, impressing the world and transcending yourself into a higher plane. This one makes you forget the grass, get up, and want to kick some butt. I would say this is the most critical part—getting up and abandoning your desire to stop. Because it doesn’t matter what you do, or how difficult it is, you’re not going to get anywhere if you convince yourself it can wait, and wait, until all priority is gone.
“It doesn’t matter how slowly you go, so long as you don’t stop.” - Andy Warhol.
Heed your dreams ASAP.
And don’t wait for the right time. If timing is your main concern, consider this: There will never be a perfect time. The universe doesn’t exist for perfect opportunities. We are alive because of imperfection.
One of my favorite quotes is by Israelmore Ayivor:
“Don’t wait for the rain to be over because it might take too long. You can do it now. Wherever you are, you can do it now, right now, at this very moment. You can dance in the storm.”
Act as though you have enough time. The right answer to the question of when is always going to be right now.
If you stick with it faithfully, it’s going to get fun. You’re going to get better, but then it’ll just get harder and harder. Like going to the gym, the process is painful, but when you get back, you are healthier, stronger, more confident, and feel like a relic of God. When the hard part comes along, that’s when you’ll get the most learning done.
Step three: feel the pain, love the pain, and know that getting frustrated means you're making progress.
When you finally reach the end, you’ll praise yourself for the new skill, the effort you put into getting there, and the understanding that you have the persistence and self-discipline to do it again.
