“Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle” – Napoleon Hill
Looking back at what you have overcome is a great way to motivate yourself and stay the course. That said, how good are you at identifying new struggles and coping with them at the moment? Let me share one of my recent, learning experiences.
I recently completed the first week of my Ph.D. taught courses – qualitative research with a three-hour in-course assessment that started at 2 am Atlanta time! The classes I attended this past week were from 1 am – 10 am Eastern time. That meant my new day started at 12.30 am.
Interestingly, this past week was not as brutal as the preceding two weeks when I had to prepare and submit my 1st pre-course assessment. I was supposed to read extensively and answer some questions on research philosophies, ethics in research, research design amongst other topics. To be fair, we were given sufficient time to read and submit our assignments. I however underestimated the amount of reading involved, especially reading a completely new subject on research philosophy.
My brain had to come to terms with strange new words like epistemology, axiology, phenomenology, and others. At the end of the session, I told the program advisor that it was my worst learning experience to date. The fault was not the lecturers or the program but entirely mine. I had failed to: –
1. Prepare adequately for the completely new terrain I was getting to.
2. Make allowance for the time it will take to grasp new concepts.
3. Embrace the struggles of a new reality for me.
After the conclusion of that dreadful week, I devoted a full session with my coach to unpack my learnings and understand why I had such a terrible experience, and what I needed to do differently. It was one thing to be pleased with myself that I had embarked on a new challenge and another thing to consider the costs and make the necessary adjustment.
In hindsight, I had not made sufficient preparations for that. Subsequently, I made the necessary adjustments to embrace my new challenge fully and enthusiastically, especially going into this past week.
What needed to shift was my mindset to fully embrace the new challenges and make the necessary allowances to ensure I have an enjoyable learning and growth experience.
Question: What struggle or challenge do you need to fully embrace to enable you to enjoy and benefit from the experience you are going through?