Skill Acquisition; Your Secret Weapon (Part 1) #Meta-Skills

Posted on August 02, 2014 by Michael R Dale, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

Meta-Skills are becoming more and more popular. One area of ever-increasing interest is skill acquisition or learning to learn. Everyone wants to know how to synthesise information faster and more effectively. Savvy individuals and companies worldwide are queuing up to equip themselves with the latest learning techniques to sharpen their competitive edge – It’s an absolute must in the fast paced world we live.

Having been a member of several learning communities (most recently Ken Wilber’s Superhuman Operating System training) and a professional coach I’ve had numerous opportunities to observe and experiment with what really makes the learning process work for others and myself.

Of course it’s different for all of us but there are two universal behaviours that make it much more enjoyable and effective for everyone.

They are:

Making Mistakes and Asking For Help.

It sounds ridiculously simple – It is – But it’s not easy. In fact some of us would sooner die than do it, or at least that’s how it feels.

Making Mistakes:

In his legendary TED Talk “How schools kill creativity” (over 27 million views on TED site alone) Sir Ken Robinson points out that the conventional schooling system literally breeds our ability to make mistakes out of us. This he says, is because the system was created to serve the needs of industrialisation and it is predicated on academic achievement and administered through excessive testing.

Ken suggests, to the great amusement of his audience, that if an alien tried to work out the purpose of our school system, he would conclude that it was to create university professors. (It’s a great talk well worth watching or re-watching)

Giving ourselves permission to make mistakes through letting go of the fear of not appearing perfect or normal is at the least incredibly liberating. In fact it leads many of us back to a joyful, infant-like curiosity about the world.

It also has a catalytic impact on our ability to synthesise information and significantly accelerates the learning process – Transforming it from an anxiety inducing irritation to a pleasurable creative process that connects us with our vulnerability and opens our hearts and minds to levels of growth and change we never could have previously imagined possible.

According to the Naqshbandiyya-Mujaddidiyya Sufi tradition taught by Llewellyn Vaughn-Lee, of all life forms on earth there is a unique divine spark within human beings and it is our capacity to make mistakes! They believe this spark was a gift from God that enables humans to ascend even the realm of angels.

Whether you are spiritually inclined or not the metaphor conveys a powerful message;

Our ability to make mistakes is not a weakness that we must train ourselves out of as we have been led to believe, it is our greatest asset! – An evolutionary boon that separates us from all other species.

It is our secret weapon in the battle for survival.

Now this is all very well in theory but one does not just get over the fear of making mistakes as much as one does not just get over Catholic guilt. We come from strict academic backgrounds in which mistakes have severe consequences. For many of us the thought of making a mistake is akin to that of dying, its totally terrifying. In fact most of our deepest psychological wounds and traumas are centred around our (perceived) mistakes.

This is one area where the support of a skilled practitioner can be incredibly valuable. Freeing yourself from your limiting assumptions around making mistakes will open you up to a whole new level of learning, lightness and connection with yourself and others…

Look out for part 2 “Asking For Help” coming soon.

For more articles, talks and poetry visit www.mrmichaeldale.com

Better still download a free copy of my new enhanced iBook “Escape To The Homelands Of The Heart; Awaken Your Inner Poet” and leave a review on iTunes.