You’d think I’d learn by now. I mean it’s not that complicated, really.

It all started because Gorgeous said I needed to start thinking about getting healthier. She was right, as usual. I’ll be cresting the big 4-0 this year and I’m finally beginning to recognize my own physical mortality.

So we started adjusting our diet a bit. More fresh plant life and fewer burgers. Cutting back on the fast food in general. Even though I’m pretty much a convenience eater, that part was pretty easy.

Then we set our sights a little closer to our cravings and said we’d cut back on the deserts and sweets. Used to be we’d never consider sharing a desert at a restaurant. Now it’s kinda fun.

A couple weeks ago the whole healthier diet thing took a painful turn for me. I like coffee. Lots of coffee. Historically I’ve consumed mass quantities of the stimulating beverage every day. But I know it can’t be good for me.

So I’m working on a consumption reduction program where coffee is concerned.

One ingredient in my new healthier beverage program is to start each day with a cup of caffeine free tea. Sometimes I have a steamy cup of something that promises to “detoxify” me. Hey, I figure after nearly 40 years of consuming junk I could stand for some detoxifying.

The Problem

And that is what brings me to my apparent learning disorder.

I am very much a creature of habit, especially first thing in the morning. I don’t really wake up all that quickly so routines help me get functioning more smoothly. My morning rituals are designed to help clear the cobwebs out while still moving in the forward direction.

And it seems I’ve gotten myself into a bit of a dumb rut. Each morning I get to my desk, fire up my computer, and set my mug down with that first cup of tea, bag in, still steeping.

The hard part comes in getting the dang tea back out of the cup before I start drinking. I typically don’t have a plate at my desk. There’s too much clutter to find a place to set one nearby. So once I fish it out with a spoon I want to make sure I get most of the water out of the bag so I don’t start staining my desk top, or the clutter that it would have to soak through to get to the desk.

That means I get my fingers down and dirty squeezing out the bag.

The problem I run into is that water is hot. Every morning. On my fingertips.

You’d think after the 17th morning or so of doing this that I would come up with a better way. But each morning I do a little hot finger dance at my desk, grumble, amazed at my own apparent inability to learn and change or overcome such a simple small obstacle in my day.

Yet I seem to insist on nearly burning my fingertips day after day. Why is that?

I mean I don’t think I’m stupid. Am I?

Eventually I figure I’ll come up with something. If you’ve got any ideas, I’m open. I know I’m trainable.

This whole experience of swapping my blog over to the new platform has been a huge learning curve. It is sort of like I put my mouth around a fire hose and someone when over to the valve and spun it open telling me to “drink it down.” The process has me asking the question

How do we learn?

Yesterday I looked at imitating others. Another good learning tool, maybe even the best, is simply repetition. The times we experience something, the more solidly we learn it.

Napoleon Hill once said

Any ideas, plan, or purpose may be placed in the mind through repetition of thought.

Then there’s Shad Helmstetter, who is a big advocate of something he calls Self Talk. Shad explains how simple repetition over time can completely change the way we look at ourselves and the world around us in his book What to Say When You Talk to Your Self. Good Stuff, for sure.

But as most of you know, I tend to filter things through the Bible to see what that source has to say about them. Sure enough. The Bible tells us that repetition is an effective learning tool too.

So commit yourselves completely to these words of mine. Tie them to your hands as a reminder, and wear them on your forehead. Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are away on a journey, when you are lying down and when you are getting up again. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that as long as the sky remains above the earth, you and your children may flourish in the land the LORD swore to give your ancestors.

So there you have it.

You want to learn something? Immerse yourself in it. Let it soak through you until you have it mastered.

Enjoy!

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We learn best by imitating others. The most effective learning process involves

1. Watching someone else do something
2. Doing it under their supervision
3. Doing it on your own
4. Showing someone else how to do it.

The whole process moving this blog over to the new format here has been one big learning curve. Every time I get stuck trying to format something, I look around for a place where something similar was done and I copy it.

Did you know that type of learning is endorsed by the Bible?

At the end of his life the Apostle Paul wrote a letter to his protégé Timothy. One of the things he thought was important to remind Tim of as his life was nearing an end was this:

And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.

I am learning a bunch in my recent blog move by imitating what has been done before. And it is working.But the kicker is that when I copy a bad example, it doesn’t work. I get ineffective results. So we can’t just imitate whatever’s out there and expect to get good results.So here are some questions to ponder.

• What am I learning these days?
  • Am I even learning anything new?
• Who am I modeling?
  • Are they a good role model for that area?
  • Or will copying them get undesirable results?
• Who am I mentoring?
  • Am I passing the baton?

Make a difference in this world. Pass the baton!

Enjoy!

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