December 16, 2023

You can’t do it, or you’re still learning?

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There are many things that I can’t do, and a subset of those are things that I’m trying to learn to do. The difference is subtle, but can make a huge difference.

In “Excellent Advice for Living“, Kevin Kelly shares:

The fact that you “can’t do” something can be embarrassing. But if you are “learning to do” something that is admirable. There are only tiny baby steps between can’t and learning.

As he says, the difference between “can’t” and “learning” is just some tiny baby steps.

I can’t play the violin, and likely never will. Perhaps you can’t play it either, but you might be learning to. That puts us in roughly the same spot skill-wise, but you have a much brighter future when it comes to violin playing.

I can’t speak Spanish, but I’m learning. I’m not far beyond someone that can’t speak it and doesn’t care, but I’m heading in the right direction.

It’s ok to have things that you can’t do and never plan to do, but making the “tiny baby steps” to start learning can pay off big time over the course of a few years.

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