learning
Originally written July 23, 2023, in my paper journal, away from cell service and civilization
KENNEDY MEADOWS, PT. 2, DAY 3
Yesterday’s dirt bike riding adventures involved the following: planning a nearly-40-mile roundtrip route to the Kern River South Fork, via the Jackass, Albanita, and Monache trails; Jackass totally kicking my ass — living up to its name — and taking everything I had, leaving me miserable; then having fun the rest of the way there, especially on Albanita (beautiful!); lunch, playing, and swimming in the river; then trying to return to camp but ultimately deciding for me to wait at the top of Monache Jeep Trail while Jake went back on our originally planned route alone to get the truck and come back to load my bike and pick me up!
This was my first time not finishing a ride, which was so tough in the moment to accept and decide, but it worked out great and was absolutely the right call! I was beyond exhausted and starting to dump the bike over often and make a lot of mistakes. I didn’t have it in me to ride the remaining dozen or so miles back to camp. It especially wouldn’t have been ideal or smart for me to attempt Jackass again — with all its difficult and technical demands — at that point. Still, it was stressful and an emotional choice to make, and poor Jake hated splitting up and felt a lot of pressure to return quickly to rescue me… he rode the route back, including Jackass, in record time, took down our truck tent back at camp, and drove up to me on the paved and dirt roads that reach Monache, probably all in about an hour and a half! All while worrying about me and hoping I wasn’t scared by myself. (I wasn’t; I reached my clearing and relaxed on a giant stump, watching other riders go by, enjoying the scenery, and playing a few games on my phone!)
Jake did such a good job and took great care of me! Everything turned out totally fine and made for a good story and learning opportunity! We had fun talking about it all on our drive back to camp and with our awesome camping/riding neighbors we met the day before. (They were a little worried about us when they got back from their ride and kept an eye on our campsite, seeing no sign of us, and they even checked on Blue Dog in our tent!)
This experience got me thinking about two key components to learning:
1) challenge vs. wins.
When you are learning something new, you need an appropriate amount of challenge so you can grow but still feel successful and experience wins, satisfaction, and enjoyment for the process along the way. A crucial part of effective learning (and teaching) is finding this sweet spot of challenge. You’ll need some challenge, so you can learn and stay engaged. But too much challenge — to the point of using every ounce you have to give, pushing past your current skill and endurance levels, reaching overexhaustion — will only make you feel you are flailing and failing. Too much challenge, disproportionate to what you’re ready for, brings a lot of frustration and leaves you feeling disheartened because you feel you’re doing poorly and the whole ordeal is a smashing uphill fight.
If, on the other hand, you can be challenged just the right amount, you will still find yourself problem solving and facing some difficult moments that help you improve and grow your capacity… AND you will have fun and feel good about yourself while doing it. The appropriate amount of challenge will make more of the experience positive and enjoyable than what is not (whereas too much challenge makes the experience more negative and miserable than not, and will likely cause you to dislike or even hate the activity you’re trying to learn).
The right amount of challenge breeds confidence, as you witness yourself succeeding and overcoming hurdles in your path. This makes you feel optimistic about gradually moving on to harder things because you believe in yourself… which is exactly the point, and this is what we want!
2) practice.
There is no shortcut or substitute for practice. Time devoted to the skill is what it takes to get better. Exposure is the key that allows the newness and fear to fade and the ability and competency to develop. It is impossible and unreasonable to expect to get really good at something you’re only doing one weekend out of the year. Or to pressure yourself for mastery when you haven’t been investing the time and practice you intended to, on a regular basis.
Practice is the answer. Practice is the road that takes you where you want to go.
