Fear. An intense emotion necessary to human survival. In its positive form it protects us from dangers or threats that may cause us harm. In its negative form…it restricts our progress & holds us back. I’m currently reading an interesting book called Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within by Kenny Werner. He opens with the basic premise that many of us approach learning new things (be it an instrument, a sport, a new concept, etc.) with a fear-based mindset. Then he goes on to explain how a fear-based mindset holds us back & restricts our ability to develop mastery.
Steps to A Fear-Based Mindset:
When we break down the steps, it’s quite easy to see how this fear-based mindset develops.
1. Unreasonable Expectations – Our minds often approach new things with the expectation that we should “master” it or be “an expert” in a very short period of time.
2. Arbitrary Timelines – Because we expect to “get it” quickly, we create an arbitrary timeline & then grow anxious & afraid when we fall behind that timeline (i.e., when we don’t pick up something fast enough, anxiety causes us to think there might be something wrong with us).
3. Rush the Learning – That anxiety & fear pushes you to rush through the learning process in hopes that you’ll pick it up faster.
4. Miss Critical Aspects – When we move quickly through the material we are trying to master, we are simply unable to concentrate & absorb the critical aspects of that material.
And so, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. When we rush, we never really “get it”. And when we never really “get it”, we underperform. And when we underperform, we increase our fear that we’re running out of time. And when we feel like we’re running out of time, we rush even faster! And so on & so on & so on…!
The Antidote
The antidote to a fear-based mindset is to throw oneself fully into the learning process, to relish every new aspect of that learning, to celebrate the process & quite simply to be joyful knowing that you don’t have to do things perfectly (in fact, mistakes are a necessary step on the road to mastery!). Easier said than done, right?!
I haven’t reached the part of the book that details how to do this. But I can bet there will be something about relaxation, letting go of ego & singular focus! I promise that I’ll give more details once I’ve finished the book. For now…I leave you with this very pertinent quote:
Expectation exists when there is fear. Siddha Yoga master, Swami Chidvilasananda
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For additional reading, here are a few more blog posts about slow learning: