Practice Makes Better

I was talking to a friend the other day. I was frustrated. I felt like I was hitting my head against a wall while trying to use a fairly new-to-me program. I told her, I like learning new things, but I don't like this part of the process.

We're both former educators, we both know that it is a normal and necessary part of the learning process.

It has me thinking, maybe I just like knowing how to do things. 😂

Realistically, I know that running into challenges and overcoming them help me understand what I'm doing in the long run. It helps me know why the process is what it is. Without running into these challenges, someone could tell me what the process is, but I won't have as deep of an understanding of why, which for me is very important.

An example from a previous lifetime is when I was an employee at a wholesale club. I held a variety of positions over the years, one of which was the returns counter. One day I had an encounter with one of the employees who worked the next step, behind-the-scenes, dealing with non-sellable returns or broken/ruined items. I got a glimpse of how their process went, and realized the way that things were organized when brought to the back of the store made a difference on their ability to do their job. From then, rather than stacking things haphazardly and praying they'd stay on the shelf, I attempted to organize the items in a way that would lead to better productivity on the next person's part. To me, it just makes sense to work that way. It's like putting your clothes back on the hanger and putting them on the rack outside the dressing room when you're shopping.

In the work I've been doing these last few weeks, I've had to redo things because maybe I missed a step, or an important detail, and as frustrating as it can sometimes be to have to go back and do something for a second (or third, or fourth, or so on) time, each iteration is another chance to practice. Each time, I notice and learn something new. This is how information sticks. This is how you build the practice to find your own errors and remedy them.

As frustrating as that can be, it's the process. To know things, one must follow the process.