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What is He Talking About? Chris Cree on Learning

January 27, 2007 by Chris Cree 11 Comments

“Personally I’m always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.” –Sir Winston Churchill

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I took Friday off from my “regular” job and went to a local blogging conference here in Savannah. I was surprised by the folks who attended.

What surprised me were the large number of folks who were there because they didn’t know much of anything about blogging and wanted to learn. In fact there were so many that the organizer of the conference adjusted the schedule and added an impromptu session to cover some of the basics of terminology so that those folks could get more out of the rest of the sessions.

That was very cool.

However there were also one or two folks there who didn’t share the enthusiasm to learn. One lady in particular seemed to have her understanding of blogging all worked out before she got there (although I don’t think she’s blogging herself) and spent a large portion of the conference time attempting to convince the rest of us to accept her views.

Apparently she was too smart for the rest of us and certainly wasn’t interested in learning from us.

She apparently didn’t like being taught.

Of course I’m not one who enjoys life’s forced lessons either. I was being taught how not to completely bite someone’s head off.

Fortunately for me while I was talking my wife happened to be sitting behind the challenging person and was able to help me out by signaling me to keep my cool. I hadn’t realized before that public speaking can be a team sport.

I sure appreciated my teammate helping me keep from doing something foolish!

But I didn’t much enjoy the learning process for that one Friday.

Sometimes my attitude toward learning is similar to my attitude toward exercise. I like having learned, not learning in just about the same way I like having exercised, not the act of exercising itself.

The best part about working out for me is finishing!

Oftentimes life’s lessons are painful to learn. However the benefit of having learned them makes that pain oh-so worthwhile.

How about you? Do you always enjoy the learning process?

What are some things we can do to make that process a little less challenging for us?

–Chris Cree, SuccessCREEations.

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Filed Under: Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, Chris-Cree, Churchill, Learning, One Way to CC It

Comments

  1. GP says

    January 27, 2007 at 1:21 PM

    Wow… laughing out loud! I just got off the phone with my dear father and we were talking about “pushing ourselves”… and while he thinks (and it’s true) i love/live to ride the horses… sometimes it is a push if i’m feeling nervous or it’s super cold but I know i”ll feel better afterwards

    As far as the learning process.. i love learning new skills, but for me the pattern is typically I’ll get real impatient when I dont do it right, right away and I’ll get frustrated, have to get through that hurdle and then I learn it 🙂
    Life’s a dance you learn as you go

    Reply
  2. ME Strauss says

    January 27, 2007 at 4:46 PM

    Hey GP,
    I love learning too, but not when I “have to.” It’s that independence thing. It gets in the way of things. I used to get self-conscious when folks were watching me. Nor anymore. I like learning too much.

    Reply
  3. Chris Cree says

    January 27, 2007 at 9:26 PM

    GP, I like that. Life’s a dance. Of course I’m still not a very good dancer, much to my wife’s chagrin!

    Of course she’ll tell you that I am trainable too. (The US Navy confirmed that years ago as well.)

    Liz, I used to let that fear of failing in public keep me from moving forward myself. Sometimes that fear still gets the upper hand even now. But not so much as when I was younger.

    Reply
  4. GP says

    January 27, 2007 at 10:03 PM

    Liz.. thanks for that “eye opener”… the frustration/impatience methinks comes from “why cant i do this Now???
    But with Alle my super well trained show horse the good news is she responds immediately to her cues, the bad news is she responds immediately to her cues… give her any other cues usually a case of “pilot error”… she’s not doing it. It’s kind of like she’s saying “when you ask the right way, i’ll go”… A great teacher in learning the dance

    So Chris… sometimes my two-steppin’ is to both her and my chagrin 🙂 Great dialogue, thanx

    GP in Montana

    Reply
  5. ME Strauss says

    January 27, 2007 at 10:28 PM

    Oh GP,
    I sure know the “Do it NOW!” thing. I never want to start with lesson 1. The first thing I made on a sewing machine was a long-sleeved, satin blouse with cuffs and buttons. Satin, can you believe? I had to pick the second-most difficult, slipperiest material. Why didn’t I just make a tailored velvet coat with a satin, zip-in lining and have a totally unforgiving situation? 🙂

    Sometimes that “Do it NOW!” thing isn’t such a great idea. 🙂

    Reply
  6. Karin says

    January 28, 2007 at 6:59 AM

    LoL Liz
    (Done exactly the same with the same result ;-))

    Reply
  7. ME Strauss says

    January 28, 2007 at 7:12 AM

    Hi Karin,
    Now you’re got me laughing too!

    I think part of my problem is that those early lesson are just boring. Who wants spend a sewing in straight line, making three-corner head scarves that I’ll never wear?

    I can’t stand to sit in a computer class and listen to how to turn on the computer. Oh maybe if so many things we’re so intuitive, then I would have more repect for the “hot-to-itive” rules. 🙂

    Reply
  8. Chris Cree says

    January 28, 2007 at 8:08 AM

    I never wanted to practice scales either. I just wanted to play the music. And I got frustrated when I couldn’t.

    GP I like the idea of a “push button” horse. One of our mares was just the opposite. You never knew exactly how she’d respond. One tiny break in your concentration and she’d get you in a bind in a hurry. But then Arabians as a breed are notorious for being flighty…

    Reply
  9. ME Strauss says

    January 28, 2007 at 10:29 AM

    It’s it great how we just want the fun part! I guess that shows a certain spirit for life! 🙂

    Reply
  10. GP says

    January 28, 2007 at 11:53 AM

    LOL here too liz, when I was first starting to do gymnastics once upon a time, i couldnt do a simple backward roll.. noooo, i had to nail the roundoff, back handspring FIRST… I finally did it though.. so I know what you’re talking about

    Chris, we HAVE to talk equines sometime… Mine’s a thoroughbred, we’re doing endurance riding.. .arabians are notorious for being excellent at that endeavour. My Alle who’s a quarterhorse, trained up the hilt, is much calmer. I’m riding her today… Yin and yang
    Sight… just another town along the road on the journey.
    Off to dance 🙂
    GP in Montana

    Reply
  11. Chris Cree says

    January 28, 2007 at 12:57 PM

    GP, Not sure how much I could add. I haven’t ridden much in *cough* twenty years.

    Reply

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