Don't Quit Now!

“You can’t teach an old dog new tricks!”

We have all heard this idiom at one time or another. It infers that it is difficult for people to learn new ways of doing things, new behaviours, new performance. It suggests that people who are stuck in their old habits find it difficult to shift to new, more effective habits. As an educator, I have heard this saying from many reluctant students who are not wanting to go through the difficult process of learning something new. The funny thing is, it is not the learning that is difficult!

Gaining new knowledge is easy: the challenge for all of us is the application of new knowledge into our actions and behaviours that results in improved performance. New knowledge alone has no value; new knowledge resulting in improved performance and results is where the magic really happens!

The truth is, you can teach an ‘old dog’ a new trick. That’s not the problem. The challenge is in getting that ‘old dog’ to do the trick consistently till it becomes part of their consistent performance — a new ‘more effective’ habit. A new way of doing things!

Most people would consider me an ‘old dog’; even my children have reminded me that my life on this earth is well over halfway! Well, for the last six months, this ’old dog’ has been learning how to play the banjo. That’s right, the banjo! I have always been fascinated by this misunderstood instrument. If you mention to most people that you are learning to play the banjo, they end up doing some interpretative version of Dueling Banjos from the movie Deliverance (insert face slap emoji here).

I do love that tune, (not so much the movie), but it does not do the instrument justice. I was inspired to take up the Banjo by watching and listening to Scott Avett from one of my favourite bands, ‘The Avett Brothers’. Now, like with most things, when you watch someone good at what they do, Scott Avett has this ability to make it look easy. When they are performing, and in the flow, it looks seamless, it looks instinctive, and it looks calm and masterful.

Now I am a long way from being a Scott Avett! My banjo playing is clunky, looks clunky and sounds clunky! Some weeks it feels like I have made little or no progress. Some days I don’t want to pick my banjo up, I walk past it, and it torments me from the corner of my room, daring me to pick it up and attempt to master it once again. Some days I want to give up!

It can be like this for all of us when wanting to learn new skills. We identify areas in our professional and personal life that we need to improve. The results aren’t where they need to be, and we know that we need to improve our performance if we are going to improve our results.

It could be new sales skills; we may need to improve the way we interact with our customers, ask better, more insightful questions to identify the right solutions for the right problems.

Or it could be new leadership skills; implementing a new coaching style to help enhance the development and performance of your team.

Changing behaviour can be difficult. We experience setbacks; what seemed easy yesterday is now difficult again today. When we get a handle on one component, a new element is introduced that reminds us how little we know and how much more we have to learn. There seem to be more failures than successes, more despair than hopefulness. The wins can be inconsistent, and there is a temptation to give up and write it off as a failed experiment. These setbacks are where most people will give up and follow the path of least resistance back to old actions and behaviours – old habits!

The problem is most people give up too early! 

“Humans are creatures of habit. If you quit when things get tough, it gets that much easier to quit the next time. On the other hand, if you force yourself to push through it, the grit begins to grow in you.”

Travis Bradberry

The truth is new performance is hard and difficult till that moment it isn’t anymore — the tipping point. Where it now becomes easier, where it makes sense, the performance flows and is automatic.

To get to this point, though, first, you have to go through the grind! The frustration and despair that you feel through the grind are indicators of how important it is to you. It means something! You want what comes with this new performance and new habits! The reality is everyone goes through it, even a Scott Avett! What we don’t see are the hours of Scott sitting in his room grinding out roll patterns, and the frustration through setbacks when a pattern doesn’t stick.

To develop new skills and new performance; every repetition is crucial. Your brain is adapting and changing, building new neural pathways that will make this new performance easier and automatic. You are creating high-quality, high-performance habits that are strengthened through the process of grinding it out. Scott Avett through consistent practice, involving repetitive actions, he has created a habit that is easy and automatic.

When I get frustrated with my banjo playing progress or any of the career goals I am working on, I remind myself of a quote from James Clear’s book Atomic Habits, and I tell myself that I am still in the grind – but, I am getting close!

“When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stone-cutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that last blow that did it—but all that had gone before.” 

James Clear

Don’t give up! The work you are doing, your practice and focused quality repetitions all add up.

Keep moving forward, keep hammering away, keep grinding it out, your tipping point is coming!

Regards,

Peter Edwards