Growing up, I always wanted to ride a bicycle. I wanted to feel the thrill
of moving at high speeds, the wind blowing my unbuttoned shirt like
batman's cape. The only problem was that I did not own a bicycle and I
never got to learn how to ride one. So on one fateful day in 2009, I
went to a bicycle shop and picked up a nice Japanese Miyata road bike. I
gently placed the bicycle in my car and walked it (gentlemanly) to my
garage when I got home.
Quick puzzle for you, did I
(A) take my bicycle out when it was
bright and sunny and try to learn how to ride in the broad daylight or
(B) sneak out in the middle of night when the neighbourhood was
fast asleep to practice riding my bicycle.
If you picked option B, then
give yourself a pat on the back.
We all know that one guy that
doesn't care what others think about him and would have been absolutely
comfortable as an adult learning how to ride a bicycle in the daylight. For
the rest of us, we need sandbox environments where it's safe to play, to
fail, to learn without the fear of physical or social injury. Sandboxes relieve us of the burden of self-doubt and
self-consciousness. For many of us, our sandbox is first our family and
then our friends. Sometimes we find ourselves amongst "friends" we can't
learn new things around without being ridiculed (in a "friendly way"?).
Will you encourage your friend or put her down if she decides to learn a
new, challenging skill even if she should already know how to do it?
Sandboxes help us get comfortable with learning different skills;
they help us focus on the task at hand instead worrying about who's
watching and what they think. It's on us to find the right sandboxes for
particular skills we want to learn, sometimes our sandbox is among family and
friends, sometimes it's group classes where everyone is there to learn,
sometimes it's a private tutor, sometimes it's learning in a different
city where no one knows you and sometimes it's learning in the darkest
hours of the night.
After learning how to ride a bicycle, then swimming, piano, west coast
swing, public speaking and even hoolahooping all after college, I am
more comfortable learning in public these days. Most time though, I still
prefer learning in my sandbox and showing off my newly learned skill in
the spotlight. Have you found your sandbox?
Thoughtful write up, I find myself lost in a funny world in which a lot move fast, too many safe-harbors and often forgetful of the existence of a sandbox ... I guess new/skipped skills get learnt in those sandboxes, like continuing my dance lessons or learning to play an instrument! Thanks for sharing.
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