“Shake off that erroneous notion that life is there and you’re just gonna live in it. Versus embrace it, change it, improve it, make your mark on it…Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.”
—Steve Jobs
Casey is someone who loves to look into the way people learn and deal with it. In this research, she suggested that people might not need to try so hard to better themselves.
She looked at the feeling of “not good enough” and the consequent quest to find, do, or have more, may it be professional development, happiness, information, reassurance, or challenges. Searching for a solution she wondered what would happen if people could trust that they “are already pushing hard enough and growing fast enough.”
The challenge when using both polarities is to find the space where good enough feels like “good enough.” Using both polarities invites people to stay in the same conflict as before. Their reference point remains the search for the sweet spot of “good enough” and the question will continue to pop up anytime “more” becomes available. There is no shift in measurement or perception that would ease a shift of attitude.
However, she also shared a metaphor that allows for such a shift. She compared the quest for more with “turning the ignition in a car that is already running.”
There are moments in which it is relevant to learn more or do more, but usually, these moments occur while preparing. Being on the ride is a different state and situation. When we are on the ride, we can’t turn the ignition any more, we have to stay on the ride and be curious about it. Curiosity will help us see upcoming obstacles and experience will allow us to choose if one needs to stop, move around it, or move through it.
And yes, this includes moments during which one must stop to take a rest, refuel the car, have maintenance, take a moment to verify the direction and the changes the obstacle implies, etc.
But in between, once the ignition has been turned, we are on the ride. That’s how experience builds up.
Learning, preparing, building experience, or reflecting are different steps on the journey. They don’t happen simultaneously.
