Some of friends commented that my posts in this blog are only related to technology. So, I thought I will also post something not related to technology for a change. (Of course I do hope, I will be able to post more such, in future!)
A couple of years back, I was very much impressed by the idea on Stages of Learning, put forward by Dr. Wayne Dyer. I was quite fond of his books, and purchased quite a few of them. Even today, whenever I get time I go through these books. Also, it is great to read his books, when you're down. It gives a lot of inspiration.
The Stages of Learning -- anything that you come across, whether it is a child learning how to walk, or a teenager on his first job, or those of us from technology learning a new programming language or a typical way of doing new things -- we go through 5 phases. According to Dyer, these are Panic, Inertia, Striving, Coping and Mastery.
As may be very clear to everyone, whenever we come across a particular situation for the first time, it is cause for Panic. We don't know how to face it. Dyer gives the example of punctured tyre of vehicle while you're on a long trip, with no assistance seen nearby. First few moments, you're totally immobilized. This is true of any situation or new learning.
Next few moments are those of Inertia. You are just not able to go forward. You know, that you're facing a problem and you have to solve it. But you just cannot. Sometimes I am astonished at the number of people who "quit" at this point of time. You tend to rationalize that such-and-such is very difficult or "it is just not for me" etc. But as they say, the tough people go beyond this stage quite quickly.
At least, they reach the next stage -- Striving. When you reach this stage, you're trying hard to achieve, what you want. Yes there could initial hiccups. But you work towards overcoming all these, and want to succeed in your learning.
Depending on the effort you put in and how fast a learner you are, you will soon reach a point where we could say you are Coping well. Here you feel comfortable. You know that you can do it, and the worst is behind you.
But, it is rather unfortunate that many people leave it at that. They feel quite complacent, or think that it is good enough. But the most important stage in this 5 stages of learning, is the last one -- Mastery. This is beyond Coping. You have to do deep into it. If you're sure that you have learned a particular task because you feel it is important, it is just not sufficient that you know it -- you have to be a master at it.
Reaching the last stage -- that was most important message I have learned from Dr. Dyer's stages of learning. This has also influenced me a lot whether it is related to career or associated with hobby. Yes, I have read some variants of the same theme depicted by other authors also. May be different words, but quite often I have seen this repeated by many successful people. They just do not rest when everyone does. They go beyond -- and achieve Mastery.
Bye for now.
4 comments:
Great post Sir. What i too think is that most people easily gets up to the coping stage. But to move up to mastery what one needs is real passion to learn and hence very few rises to that level.
Many a times I found myself leaving the stage once I have coped with the new challenge. Maybe because the fun part of learning ends here and the boring part starts from here. Having got a feel of the challenge it seems to me more exciting to look for new learning experiences than to be stay focussed on learning in depth.
But what you said is right - Mastering is the most important stage in learning anything and I truely believe that one's self-initiativeness determines whether one becomes a Master or remain as "Jack of all arts and master of none".
Good one Ajit.
I remember reading about the 'extra mile' or 'extra hour' one need to put in as an effort to the mastery you mentioned. Forgot where i read it. When you feel you are done with a task, dont stop, but spent a bit more time to see if you can go a little bit further..
Keep writing!
Thank you Roshan and Snow Leopard for the comments.
Yes, you will see the same theme appearing in many of books on success with different names -- "going the extra mile" is a quite a popular term.
Important point is that if you have decided that something is good for you, it is better to reach the mastery level, rather than continuing in the "coping" level.
Ajit,
I understand from your previous posts that you were associated with a central banking solution implementation.
When time permits please give some insights on the general issues you face in data migration - from my understanding and experience one of the most complex issues of any application integration drive is data porting, clensing and migration - and it tend to consume a great proportion of time and effort.
Thanks.
Post a Comment