"You can't teach and old dog new tricks."
This saying is so old, we don't even know where it came from. Does it apply to humans as well?
I don't think so.
When Bobby wants to learn to throw a baseball, he picks it up, copies what he has seen, and observes if the result. If the result is not what he wanted, he picks up the ball, and tries again until it's right. Once it's right, he is proud of his accomplishment and celebrates by continuing to do the very thing he set out to do. . . he throws the ball more! Isn't this fun!
When Robert decides he wants to learn how to throw a baseball, he looks it up on the internet. He studies the proper way to hold the ball. He studies every detail of the technique. He researches the history of baseball and watches videos of the greatest players to ever touch a ball. Then he asks an old friend who played ball in college for some pointers. After that, Robert buys the best ball and glove that he can afford and heads off to the park. He looks around to make sure nobody is paying any attention to him. Then, he begins, with self-conscious reservation, to throw the ball. After the first attempt, he divides his attention between thinking about every detail of his technique, and making sure that nobody saw his first try. Once the park gets a little busier, he packs up and goes home.
Can you tell the difference? Doesn't one sound so much more fun than the other?
We, as adults, expect a lot from ourselves. If it's not right the first time, it's wrong. Due to the fear of failure, the appreciation for the process of gaining a new skill is lost on us. We fill ourselves with doing everything EXCEPT what we set out to do.
The next questions from my adult mind beg, "Why do we do this? Is it out of insecurity? Is this a new process, or have people been doing this for years? Am I alone in this?" The truth is. . . IT DOESN'T MATTER. Simply by observing this and analyzing the problem to pieces is exactly why we never fix it, just like Robert trying to throw the ball, we do everything around our goal, but somehow avoid what we wanted to accomplish in the first place
How do we get around this?
Do.
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