There Will Be a Learning Curve

I was sorting through a piles of papers when I found one with scribbled with these words:

There will be a learning curve.

It had no reference for context, but I didn’t need it. I remember a friend sharing this a few months back on a Zoom meet-up. She mentioned that she reminds herself of this daily, especially when working on new projects.

It struck me as a beautiful act of self-care; a trigger for self-compassion.

Inspired, I wrote it down to keep it in front of me. Inasmuch as it is so obvious, it is also something I know I easily forget.

There will be a learning curve.

Of course there will be. There always is. And yet somehow I expect that every new venture, every new skill, will just come to me with ease — even though this almost never happens.

In fact, quite the opposite. I tend to be quick to comprehend cognitively, while my body takes a little bit longer to catch up. And then I get frustrated about why I’m so “slow” to catch on. I go down the hole of wondering what’s wrong with me, and why everyone else has it so much easier. I fight with my brain, as if that’s ever proved to be a useful strategy. And down the rabbit hole I fall.

There will be a learning curve.

A simple reminder that can head off the frustration and the self-aversion before I even get to the threshold of that ride.

An invitation for a different journey: of wonder and curiosity, of appreciation and acceptance, of liberation and freedom.

There will be a learning curve liberates me from the illusion of linear progress, the tyranny of expectations to know all the answers, to get it right, to have it all figured out.

It offers freedom to experiment, explore, tinker, and even to forget. And to know that even in the moments when I forget, all is well and all shall be well, because this is part of the process.

There will be a learning curve.