My mother told me I was born during a heavy downpour. This has always made me feel a sense of connection with rain. Hmm.. I just told you something irrelevant because it would be weird to start this piece with - “The calm before the storm”. Anyway, after the storm, there’s also a calm. In this case, you could imagine a deafening pitch of a new born baby.
“The storm before a calm”. Why is there never a smooth road to good or bad? Even as you’re looking to learn something, like a new skill, there are stages you’d encounter, no matter how smart you are.
This brings me to the 5 stages of learning
1. Enthusiasm 🔗
When you see a master at work, every thing they do looks easy. With your beginner’s mind, you tend to underestimate the complexity of a topic because of the intro tutorials on youtube. This is a good thing if you enjoy what you’re learning, but it’s important that you define a clear roadmap, so you can anticipate the challenges ahead.
2. Feeling of Genius 🔗
It’s easy to fall into the genius trap when the topic is simple to grasp but hard to master. For example, a front end developer using javascript could pick up python in less than a month. But that’s not all there is about learning python. You need to spend a lot of time mastering design patterns, working with frameworks like Django and learning industry-specific application of python.
3. Self-Doubt 🔗
This stage is common among beginners who pick up a hard skill to learn. They can fall into this loop of Self-Doubt to Enthusiasm to Feeling of Genius and back to Self Doubt. Just know that it’s normal to have questions that need answers, and that’s why you should be a part of a community that can help you in those tough moments. However, self-doubt is not imposter syndrome. Competence breeds confidence.
4. Awareness 🔗
While having self doubt, what helps you get through is identifying your areas of weakness. Identify what you don’t know and what you think you know. Focus on these weaknesses until they become strengths.
5. Mastery 🔗
This is the final stage of learning, where everything looks easy but you are constantly looking to make things better, thereby pushing you to go through the 5 stages of learning again. And then, it never ends.
Summary: Enjoy what you do, and you won’t care to read this piece again