types of learning

There is learning that feels fun and exciting, like novelty and delight, when you are engaged and happy, even while challenged. This learning can involve some stress and pressure, as you test your limits and grow beyond where you are right now — but this learning doesn’t feel overwhelmed by hardship. It doesn’t feel negative or too challenging. I think I’m trying to say it doesn’t feel unwanted. It’s positive, welcomed learning.

(Example: I’m expecting this thrilling, happy learning curve at a new job I’m starting at the end of this month and have been really excited about! It’s the kind of learning you do when you’re showing up really wanting to learn the task at hand and stoked about the process!)

There is also learning that feels unexpected, like trial by fire; sometimes unwelcome, in the form of struggle we don’t ask for; and sometimes predominantly overwhelming and heavy.

(Example: I’ve known this kind of learning at times when I’ve felt stuck in a situation I wanted to move on from, when I felt I’d outgrown a job, when I applied for dozens of companies and the process took months longer than I expected to get a position I was really passionate about, when I was burnt out, and when I experienced some of my harder growing up seasons. Our most trying chapters of rejection, persistence, unknowns, loss, and struggle offer much learning, but it isn’t always through an enjoyable process, and usually not one we intentionally signed up for.)

Both types of learning are an opportunity. Both types give us possibility and a chance to rise to the occasion. Both invite a new era we can step into and the next part of ourselves we can improve and become.

They feel very different. But with our best intentioned approach, we can do well coming to the other side of either kind of learning.