Learning Curves

Yeah, I'd like to talk about this learning curve problem.

For me, I'm pretty certain I'm not too used to feeling competent. I wish I could say that's the case, but with attention-deficit issues, I've spent most of my life feeling incompetent.

For me, it's an issue of time.

After 50, I'm aware that I no longer have half or more of my life ahead of me to correct for mistakes.

I also have over 50 years behind me in which I've learned a lot about myself.

For example, if I've been trying for 50 years to multitask and I've never done it well, I can pretty accurately predict that I'm not going to be good at it now. If I can accomplish something in another way, I'll do so. Not because my brain synapses are less flexible, but because I have long years of personal evidence and I know me better than I ever did. I know what works and what doesn't.

Add to that, at today's speed of technology, I wonder if any skill I train for now will be relevant two years from now. And two years matters more now than it did when I was 30.

Learning curves will never end, and I wouldn't even want them to. But I can choose which ones are right for me.

I look for training with at least one of the following characteristics:

• enjoyment of the material itself
• reasonable expectation that I can use and profit from my training immediately
• reasonable expectation that I can transfer my basic learning to another role if the specific role I trained for becomes obsolete
  

Getting Older in Business

In his blog post, The Three Challenges with Going Into Business Once You're Older, Mark Silver addresses the perks and challenges of the aging entrepreneur.

He writes about three challenges: Decades of Competence; Needing Comfort; and Realistic Expectations.

I'd like to reflect upon what he says in my own words.

On competence...

A conversation comes to mind. We were hiking with a small group in the Portland hills when two of us "older ones" in the group expressed that we were just "tired of learning." But as soon as the words were out of our mouths, we realized that it wasn't true at all.

No, I'm not tired of learning. But I did hope that age would allow me to follow my own curiosity more. I'd hoped age would give me wisdom, competence, and confidence. And it didn't do any of that.

I had hoped that age would bring me knowledge to give back to others and lead the generations that follow me.

And it didn't do that either. Instead, I'm learning from them.

I've been in business a long time, so I'm used to having learning curves. I also believe that working for someone else doesn't exempt anyone from learning curves, not these days.

What age did bring me was humility and focus. It's not so different from a deadline when you become aware that time is running out and the job must be done. Whatever isn't relevant to my life gets deleted from the process, making me leaner and even meaner.

On needing comfort...

This is a hard reality to face. More aches and pains, tiring earlier, the body has limitations it didn't have before.

On the other hand, I'm ready with a full tank of mental energy by 7 a.m. most mornings, and some mornings as early as 4 a.m. I didn't do that ten years ago!

About realistic expectations...

It's downright annoying to me to have someone rah-rah me out of my real-world limitations without first walking in my shoes.

I'm a natural idealist myself, and I'm used to learning curves and taking chances. But I know from experience now that some things don't work. So why would I go there?

Age is a natural human process, described by James Hillman as "growing down."

Our energy shifts, from growing branches toward the sky, to growing roots into the ground. This makes us stronger, prevents us from toppling.

I don't believe this means we should literally "stay put," but rather become more rooted in our values, those things in life that matter. It's time to stop playing around and get to the point. Perhaps rather than "believe" our way out of our age-related limitations, facing them straight on puts us squarely in the present moment and strengthens us to do what we're put on this earth to do.