For the past four days, I've been heavily involved into swimming. The reason is simple: I'm on a internernation competition at Santiago, Chile. It is basically four days of intense morning and afternoon competition under the hot-boiling sun. It had been almost 3 years since the last time I swam for my club Regatas Lima in a international country. The experience has been amazing and I've learned a ton.
In most cases, we learn how to swim with immense practice and to compete at a competition. This has been the case for me, again, for the past three years. I had forgotten how it was to compete away from home and how independent you must be. Training is very different from competition because during competition I only have one shot to embrace my skills and tune my speed to get it right. Additionally, in practice I am my only opponent, but in competition I have tone of unknown opponents that are as good or even better than me. Because I haven't swam in an international competition in so long, I had forgotten what it was like to control nerves and adrenaline in my body and I had forgotten what it meat to have long races. I've been preparing myself so much this past months, yet I didn't feel prepared. The reason behind was because I didn't have enough experience in competition, I was away from it a long time and I hadn't immersed myself in competition as much as I did with training.
This brings me to the title of this entry: Learning though experience.
I want to make clear that real learning occurs when you're put into unknown situations and you apply your knowledge, fail and learn and problem solve to survive. Problem solving, handling nerves and being mature is what you'll need to know best, at least in my case for swimming.
In most cases, we learn how to swim with immense practice and to compete at a competition. This has been the case for me, again, for the past three years. I had forgotten how it was to compete away from home and how independent you must be. Training is very different from competition because during competition I only have one shot to embrace my skills and tune my speed to get it right. Additionally, in practice I am my only opponent, but in competition I have tone of unknown opponents that are as good or even better than me. Because I haven't swam in an international competition in so long, I had forgotten what it was like to control nerves and adrenaline in my body and I had forgotten what it meat to have long races. I've been preparing myself so much this past months, yet I didn't feel prepared. The reason behind was because I didn't have enough experience in competition, I was away from it a long time and I hadn't immersed myself in competition as much as I did with training.
This brings me to the title of this entry: Learning though experience.
I want to make clear that real learning occurs when you're put into unknown situations and you apply your knowledge, fail and learn and problem solve to survive. Problem solving, handling nerves and being mature is what you'll need to know best, at least in my case for swimming.
Additionally, this is not only the case for sport, you can see it in school as well. It's extremely different to read a book about medicine and then take a test, no learning really happens only short term memorizing. However, it is different to actually be an intern in a hospital for a month and then take the test. Learning happens from experience because it is those moments when you fail and stand up that truly validate your learning. Whatever requiers you to open up your mind and do things, will make anything you learn last in your memory for much, much longer.
We can see this through Blendz. We are currently learning about business in our own business and we are getting little content from books, but a ton of content from experience. Yes, the books give me a backbone and support with knowledge, but the experience I've gained from receiving feedback from real clients and processing it has been outstanding.
We can see this through Blendz. We are currently learning about business in our own business and we are getting little content from books, but a ton of content from experience. Yes, the books give me a backbone and support with knowledge, but the experience I've gained from receiving feedback from real clients and processing it has been outstanding.
There's something fascinating about these two scenarios To being with, experience and motivation is what will keep you going. Because learning from experience is so much harder because you have to fail in order to be right the next time, experience will give you grit and determination. It will keep you motivated to continue learning and practicing. Without motivation, your on a constant circle trying to find an angle, with motivation you have a target. And without experiencial learning you're basically reading a book, yet you never get the chance to see those words meaning in the real world. Secondly, I've connected all this with motivation, you must take some time outside of the swimming pool or classroom to open up. I like to call this: "Look up" as a powerful video about techology is titled (link below). Take time out of your laptop, or the swimminh pool to talk about your work with someone. You'll probably learn something about what your doing. Finally, and not less important, enjoy what you're doing. You'll be able to find those best fit experiences that will make you grow, because you love what you're doing.
And as always, thanks for reading.
And as always, thanks for reading.