The Learning Process
How I managed to not talk clearly till I was between 3 and 4 years old still baffles me. When my dad told me, I was almost ashamed because I thought I was always a smart and sharp kid. But then he used a perspective that strikes me as amazing while telling me about it. He said, I was born in a land where my native language (Yoruba) was not spoken by most people. Within our house, my parents and siblings spoke English and Yoruba, but in the community, there was Efik, Ibibio, Ikwerre, Igala and so on. He said my brain needed to adjust and learn both English and Yoruba. He said when I started to talk, I spoke both languages clearly. It’s amazing. He said that prior to speaking, I used to just come to him and babble for a long time and then run away excitedly… like I had achieved something big. The whole thing has gotten me thinking. Learning is a process and to effectively learn, we must respect the process.
Growing up, while in secondary school, I used to go through our bookshelves at home and look through my siblings’ notes and textbooks. Truthfully, I was incredibly intimidated. I was always wondering how my immediate elder brother had all those equations in his books and understood what they meant. I wondered if I would ever understand it. At some point, I was scared that I may get to his level and not understand those big things they were learning. But I got there and I learned those things. I learned about the great differentials and the so-called “almighty formula”. Interesting! I could not believe it. I was more surprised at myself than a regular teenager would be. And once again, I understood, to learn anything at all, we must respect the process.
No one gets anywhere by purely luck. I mean, “luck” (in quotes on purpose because not everything that looks like luck is luck) may help but it still needs some backing up of hardwork and resilience. Some people say smart work is better than hardwork, but to me, smart work is hard work. To be smart about anything, a process has to be done of understanding the best way to go about it. You will only work smart when you have put in the hard work. I saw a movie recently with a common theme movies have these days (I don’t know why there are not so many original ideas for movies in our world anymore). A girl developed hate for someone at the top because she felt the person was undeserving. She got an opportunity through the wrong means to be at that same spot and she crashed. She wanted to skip the process, but it back fired. If you do not respect the process of learning, whatever you have will not last.
I keep saying respect the process, but how do you do that? Well, let’s just say, respect and honor are things of the mind. When you value something, when it has some weight to you, you will give honor to it. So when you see someone attaining some heights after going through a rigorous process, if you value their journey, you will learn and get to your own heights too. Learning is a process, don’t skip the line, but respect the order that is in this life we have found ourselves in.
I get broke from time to time and it seems like I may be off on my financial game sometimes. Each time, I wonder why. I am that person that believes that only good things are allowed to happen to me. But each time things that are not so great happen and I wonder why, I keep perceiving that it is a phase and a time to learn. It usually takes me some time to realize this, but when I eventually realize, life is easier. It is not about self deceit that life is good when it is not, but it is about an assurance that the process has an end result that is so good that the present struggle is nothing but a beautiful rough road to gold.
Are you willing to learn life’s lessons with every ounce of respect for the process in your mind? If yes, I think you will go far.
Have a great day!
