You can’t speed up a kid learning to walk. You can only make it safer to fall. Same for anyone learning.
STILLNESS
WHAT THIS MEANS
Nobody learns faster because somebody wanted them to. The process runs at the pace of the person doing it, so the only real influence available to you is the cost of their mistakes, and lowering that cost is what keeps them willing to try again. Helping means changing the conditions rather than the speed.
Think of whoever is learning something near you, yourself included. Ask what would make a mistake cheaper: more time, a quieter room, fewer people watching, permission to get it wrong twice. Change that instead of pushing, and let the pace be whatever it is.
A QUESTION TO SIT WITH
Who are you teaching, and how safe is falling with you?
MORE IN PATIENCE & TIMING
- Slow progress feels a lot like being stuck. The difference only shows when you look back far enough.
- Waiting rooms are where your thoughts get loud. Let them. You don’t have to drown them out every time.
- Coaches call timeouts to slow the other team’s momentum. You’re allowed to call one on a bad day too.
Free, with nothing to buy inside it.