If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.
– Gail Sheehy
Break down the learning curve and step outside your comfort zone.
Getting ready for your Summer Program, whether it be your first or having moved on to one of great prestige, can provoke both excitement and fear because it is an unknown commodity with the probably of some challenges, and possible steep new learning curves. This means you might have to take some giant steps outside your comfort zone. Doing this with ease and panache is not always a painless, stress-free experience. For some, being challenged with learning new tools and skills and being able to apply them immediately activates the panic button. But that doesn’t have to be the case and I want to help you break this unnerving cycle of anxiety and apprehension.
One of the first things you need to understand is that you are not the lone ranger in experiencing these feelings. Most people respond to new experiences carefully and with hesitation if at all. You have to understand that we all learn by making mistakes and failing at things along the way. The important point is to find the lesson within each, and apply that lesson to what comes next. Another important point is to be able to ask for help when you need it. That doesn’t mean you are weak or stupid, it means you are smart enough to understand that if you want to get your money’s worth from this experience you have to get the information you need to make whatever you are working on better. You are not there to impress others, which is ego driven. You are there to gain more tools and skills to help make you a better performer and business person. Stepping outside your comfort zone is an ongoing activity that gets easier with the doing. Staying within your comfort zone, keeps you stuck and often feeling like a victim of your own circumstances. Remember that you must want to learn whatever it is being presented. You have to see it as being meaningful and worthwhile in the long run for you. And this learning needs to be self-motivated. You have to want what is being taught.
Just so you know and can better understand, there are four stages to learning everything. We will use gaining a vocal technique as an example.
➢ The first stage is called unconscious lack of ability – Not only do you not know what to do technically, but you have no experience doing whatever it is that makes a beautiful bel canto line. This is the ignorant bliss stage.
➢ The second stage is conscious lack of ability – You start to do the skill and soon find out all the pitfalls and problems. Performing this skill, at this point, takes all your conscious attention. Although this stage is uncomfortable, it is also the stage when you are learning the most. You can become discouraged so it is important to break it all down into manageable bites as you work through it.
➢ The third stage is conscious ability – You can do the skill, but it still takes your all of your focus, attention and concentration to accomplish it.
➢ The fourth stage is unconscious ability – the skill (singing) becomes a smooth sequence of habitual actions and your conscious mind is free to portray the character with all the appropriate emotions, and movements.
It’s going to be your responsibility to step outside your comfort zone and put any new skills together piece by piece and then see if and where it connects to any past experiences to help make sense of it all. It’s often called our “ah-ha” moment when we finally get something. You are also going to be responsible for owning how and what you learn this summer. Those teaching are the simply the informational vehicle and what you choose to do with this information is totally up to you. Gaining these new skills helps add structure to your experiential knowledge. This happens when you formalize all your new accumulated knowledge into a sequence of steps that, if followed, will lead to taking action. And if you follow this methodology, you will notice that there are fewer and fewer adjustments that need to be made to correct your course of action. You are stretching your comfort zone, one skill at a time and working from your strengths as you go. Remember, it’s all new and needs to be experienced over and over again before these newly acquired skills can become your habit.
Dare to take that first step into this amazing adventure you are embarking on. What is the very worst that can happen? It’s usually not the end of the world even if you stumble and fall. Learning something new can be a real challenge! Everyone experiences growing pains no matter your age. So go get um and let me hear from you along the way!
Ciao, Carol
