3 Things to Remember When Managing a Challenge

This post was inspired by a chat with a friend. She had told me that she struggled when trying out new hobbies because she would get frustrated once it gets difficult to improve. This isn't meant to put her down or to criticize her - I would like to kindly share a few thoughts that have worked well for me, whenever I felt the same way.

1. Focus on the opportunities available to you because there is more room to maneuver than you think.

How many of you all have been in a situation where you were losing a game, but somehow, someway, just downright won even though everything pointed to you losing? How many times did you just make an attempt at a challenge, and then astonish yourself at the results? Or how about when you had that ten-page essay due at midnight that you started at the last minute? You know what you did. You grabbed that coffee, you went to your to room, and you closed the door. You had twenty tabs open in your browser, and you were typing at the speed of the sound. Before you knew it you finished. It's now 11:50 PM and all you have to do is check your citations your formatting. You submit it, shut off your computer, and sink into your bed. You fall asleep hoping that you did alright. After a few days or weeks, you check your score and you realize you didn’t do that bad.

I personally love when situations like this happen, because to me this is the universe signaling to you the possibilities. You CAN do it, even when pressed for time. You avoid the worst case scenario by simply removing a defeatist mindset from yourself. Also, I'm sure that you've noticed, this is a situation where you aren't prepared as much as you ideally you be. Despite this fact, your performance proved your capabilities. If you started that assignment earlier, imagine how much higher the quality could be. It's this idea, this kind of faith yourself, and this kind of energy that you need for any challenge.

Don't get me wrong though, I'm not advocating for anyone to leave things to the last minute and remain unprepared. I am merely highlighting that if focus your attention and effort on the tools and opportunities in front of you, you may be able to achieve things that you never thought you could.

2. There are fees for everything. Even hidden fees. And you can’t avoid this.

“In this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes” - Benjamin Franklin

This is the opposite side of the coin to my first example. Do you want to have a good physique? Well, now you must research diets and different exercise routines for yourself. You have to invest time and energy in learning the proper form for exercises to maximize their effectiveness. You also have to earn the money for the proper foods you need to supplement your new routine. Don't forget about ensuring that you sleep properly. Then there is the time and energy it takes for you to actually exercise, to keep going even on days when you don't want to. Another consideration is finding the willpower to stick to a program that is by nature extremely repetitive, to keep going even when you are underperforming, and to deal with set backs, like injuries. Getting a good body costs a lot, and you can’t really avoid it.

This example isn't to deter you from taking on a challenge, or to not commit to a hobby because of how much effort could go into it. Rather, the point I’m trying to make is that when you do partake in an interest or a challenge is that you should not be too hard yourself if things don’t go right, or if it takes longer than you anticipate. Getting good at something, or overcoming a challenge may take more than what you initially think - and that’s okay. It’s a part of process. It will only be more satisfying when you overcome these obstacles. There are actually 4 levels to learning something challenging according to Noel Burch.

Imagine that you're learning to ride a bike for the first time.

First Level: Unconsciously Unskilled

So this is when you might look at someone riding a bike and think, “That’s easy, so many people are doing it, I bet I could do that too.” Even though you never sat on bike in your life. In this level, you don't know how to ride a bike, and you don’t even realize this. In this level, you don't know what you don’t know.

Second Level: Consciously Unskilled

This is when you get on a bike for the first time and you realize that you can't ride a bike. You find it difficult to maintain your balance, you fall off, and you don’t know how to brake properly. In this level, you now that you are not good at what you're doing. At this level, many people give up in when trying something new. It’s fine to quit at something if you know you aren’t very passionate about it anyways. The key is to be honest with yourself here. Don’t give yourself excuses to quit if you know it is something that you'd love to learn, or that you need to overcome.

Third Level: Consciously Skilled

This is when you apply the techniques after watching a few biking tutorials, or when a friend or family member holds you a little bit while steering so that you get used to it. In this level you have some skill, but you must pay careful attention to it. You have to remain conscious of what you are doing so that you execute it correctly, and don’t develop any bad habits.

Fourth Level: Unconsciously Skilled

Finally, after a few days, weeks, months, or however long it takes, you eventually can hop on that bike without any thought, because it comes naturally. In this final level you have enough experience that it is automatic. You can execute the skill without little to no thought.

When you are learning, there will always be the things you know you need to learn, and then the things you have to learn that you don't know about. Yet. And knowing this allows you to remember that you can think outside of the box whenever you are stuck.

Whenever taking on something challenging that is new, you must go through this - you may go through some level faster than others, but you can’t escape it. Getting good at a hobby may require you to go through these phases multiple times in many different aspects of that hobby. Or maybe for a specific skill, there is another skill that you have to master first.

3. Humble yourself.

If you really want to learn, you should drop your ego. Just because you pulled an all-nighter and got a good score on that essay or exam doesn’t mean that you should always prepare the same way. Take it from me, I did this all the time in in my teen years. I prepared the day before an exam, and always came out with an A. I learned pretty quickly that I couldn’t pull this off in college, and had to get out of that habit. Hubris sometimes can be the largest factor affecting personal growth. The reality is that everyone at some point has been guilty of thinking they have all the answers to certain things. Just imagine how much you could learn however, if that mindset was dropped. You are not unstoppable, and there’s always someone who will be smarter, more successful, or better than at you at something. And you could probably learn from them.

And with that being said, that brings me to the end of this post. Let me know though, what are things that you do or habits that you have when trying to manage a challenge?

Until the next one,

Kind Regards

Orville