3 Truths About the Learning Process

Consider the following beliefs about learning and progress:

• If you take a course and repeat it, it means you didn’t learn it well enough the first time.
• If you re-read a book, it means you didn’t take effective notes the first time.
• If you decide to return to a former business, career, or relationship, it means you made a mistake in leaving.
• If you’re not increasing your weights in the gym, you’re not growing stronger.

These beliefs reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of growth and learning.

As much as we’d like to think we learn something and build on it in step-wise fashion, that’s not how it works.

The Path of Progress

Both the seasons of nature and the astrological map of the sky are mapped on a circle, not a square.

A circle has no beginning or end, reminding us that the path of progress is not linear — it’s cyclical.

The concept of coming back around to something — repeating a course, re-reading a book, revisiting a past career or relationship — is the nature of cycles. It’s a feature, not a flaw.

3 Truths About the Learning Process

Here are three things to remember about the learning and growth process:

(1) Learning happens in layers.

Our brains can only absorb so much new information at once. If you want to learn something in a way that allows you to build mastery, you must come back to the topic repeatedly.

Each time you re-visit it, you reinforce things you previously learned, which strengthens your foundation.

Think of learning like a video game: as you master certain concepts, you unlock new levels of the “learning game” that allow you to add to your store of knowledge.

But each time you boot up the game, you must start again at the beginning.

This will reinforce your skills at the early levels, giving you a stronger foundation to excel at the later levels.

(2) You can only learn what you’re ready to learn.

All learning rests on a pre-existing foundation of knowledge. Even if you’re the best note-taker, you will miss important concepts the first time.

Consider what happens when you read a book or take a course. Even if you’re the best note-taker, your notes will be limited to the concepts that you’re able to understand at that time.

The next time you read the book or take the course, you come to it with a new foundation of knowledge that allows you to appreciate nuances that you couldn’t see the first time.

(3) Different pieces resonate at different times.

In addition to your current foundation of knowledge, what you’re able to absorb from any book, course, or experience depends on your current life situation.

Each time we come back to something — whether its a season of nature, a relationship, a book, a course, a physical practice — we are different people. And this means that we will see, hear, and resonate with different pieces of the material.

I have books that I come back to repeatedly. Each time I return, I use a different color pen to underline passages or write notes in the margins. Some of the pages of those books have entire pages underlined in different colors, reflecting my shifting view of what was important to remember or what resonated with me at that time.

Repetition is a Feature

Next time you find yourself dismayed by the prospect of returning to a particular place in your learning journey, remember:

Repetition isn’t the result of a flaw or failing on your part. It’s essential to the process of learning and growth.

Repetition produces revelations; each time around the cycle, we can open to new insights and deeper learning.