Can you really learn anything?

What do you think of the notion that everything is teachable? You believe that? Do you think even the most inept person can learn to one day be competent? If you have a growth mindset, then you believe that everything is teachable. You must have a growth mindset to believe this. You must also believe in dedicated practice, discipline and dedication toward stretch goals. It is work. But it can be fun work if you’ve got the correct perspective.

It is freeing to believe that everything is teachable. Few believe this. They’re too cynical and hardened by life’s lessons. Worse, they have the fixed mindset, which cynically believes we can’t learn everything, our abilities are limited and that what we’ve got for skills by the time we’re an adult is what we’ll have for the rest of our lives. Can’t really learn much more than that. Naturally, this is a silly notion, since none of us ever stops learning, really. Even if you think you do, you don’t. We’re always learning. We’re always adjusting. We’re always feeling our way through the unknown. We’re just not that deliberate and purposeful about it. If you step outside your house in the morning, you’re learning.

If you wish to cement what you’re learning, teach others what you’re learning. While it may seem cliche, teaching is a great teacher. Try it. Teaching teaches and cements topic mastery. Being a student is a wonderful thing. We spend the majority of our time learning as a student. But when you begin teaching a subject, you suddenly have to transfer frameworks and concepts you’ve learned to others. Is it easy? Ask someone who has done it lately whether it is easy, especially when you’re new to teaching. When we’re learning something new, we lack confidence in the subject. If we have teaching experience, we’re better, but if the subject is still relatively new to us, it is a challenge. It’s tough. You feel like a fraud. You feel like the students know more about the subject than you. And who are you to be up there, teaching them, anyway? Only you’re the Expert. You’re the one up here, not them. You’re going to stand up here and teach them whether they like it or not. Then, you go.

Teaching a new subject brings whole confidence to someone. It also cements concepts and frameworks into your psyche because you must transfer them to others. Further, you have to calibrate whether they’re getting it. If they’re not getting it, you have to adjust and re-explain.