Sometimes. Some insights come easily, others with great difficulty, some even after struggling, don’t get “it.” We all have semi-conscious VABEs (Values, Assumptions, Beliefs, and Expectations about the way the world is or should be). These are imparted to us and imprinted in our first 20 years. Some come from our families, others from our cultures and languages, others from our surroundings and friends.
When we are presented with information or evidence that contradicts our VABEs, we have a VABE-abrasion. We choose whether to ignore the data and stay with our VABE or to incorporate the new information and modify our VABEs. MOST people do the former. (The Evolving Self, Csikszentmihalyi, and Fast and Slow Thinking, Kahneman) (Also, Blink by Gladwell)
DEDUCTIVE logic, beginning with a presumption and forcing data into it allows us to keep our VABEs intact. INDUCTIVE logic, beginning with data, evidence, logic etc. and inferring our conclusions from the data challenges our earlier VABEs. Not all of them, and often some core ones. People who are “set in their ways” protect their VABEs—in the face of data. People who are truly “open minded” will engage new information and modify their VABEs.
SO, VABE abrasions can cause people to struggle. Mightily They might deny the data, the messenger, the relevance of the data or its importance.
AND Gardner at Harvard identified at least six different kinds of “intelligence.” (you can find on the web) People with one kind of intelligent tendency might struggle learning another kind of topic. We referred to Poets and Quants in school. Each had their own kind of intelligence and each struggled with the Others’. If one is good at art and another is good at math, they might both struggle to learn the other’s skills.
Saul Alinsky once noted that most people go through life undergoing a series of happenings that passed through their systems undigested. Happenings only become EXPERIENCES he said when we see, reflect, digest, engage, and incorporate new information into our world views. See also Langer’s work on Mindfulness.
See my explanation elsewhere on Quora about the Life’s Story Exercise. IF we have been mindful of our “happenings” and turned them into “experiences” we have taken “lessons” from the major events of our lives. Some of these events involved great struggles.
When it comes to competing in the world, people who play to their strengths are more likely to succeed than those who play to their weaknesses. SO, self-awareness becomes very important. See my webpage for a Career Option Workbook COW that you can use to develop (for free) a detailed self-assessment—and use that to evaluate options that FIT your habits rather than fight them. Those who don’t know themselves and put themselves in positions where their skill sets are weak, “struggle.”
AND struggling is I believe a part of the natural world and life. As a white belt in taekwondo I/we struggled to remember left foot from right foot and various combinations of moves. After thousands of repetitions, the neural-neural and neural-muscular connections/synapses developed and things became easily habitual. The same is true in the ways we think. Neural-neural pathways. Eric Clapton taught himself to play the guitar with a desire so fierce his fingers bled. Read his autobiography, for example. And he loved doing it.
In my experience, the easy road is not the road to success, to craftsmanship, to insight, to growth, to learning. Peck, The Road Less Traveled. For example.
What’s your purpose in life? Until, at some point, you settle on that, learning and struggling will be just a way of drifting. Create a purpose in life, something that you believe in deeply, and focus—and the learning and struggles will be speed bumps only on your path.
When we are presented with information or evidence that contradicts our VABEs, we have a VABE-abrasion. We choose whether to ignore the data and stay with our VABE or to incorporate the new information and modify our VABEs. MOST people do the former. (The Evolving Self, Csikszentmihalyi, and Fast and Slow Thinking, Kahneman) (Also, Blink by Gladwell)
DEDUCTIVE logic, beginning with a presumption and forcing data into it allows us to keep our VABEs intact. INDUCTIVE logic, beginning with data, evidence, logic etc. and inferring our conclusions from the data challenges our earlier VABEs. Not all of them, and often some core ones. People who are “set in their ways” protect their VABEs—in the face of data. People who are truly “open minded” will engage new information and modify their VABEs.
SO, VABE abrasions can cause people to struggle. Mightily They might deny the data, the messenger, the relevance of the data or its importance.
AND Gardner at Harvard identified at least six different kinds of “intelligence.” (you can find on the web) People with one kind of intelligent tendency might struggle learning another kind of topic. We referred to Poets and Quants in school. Each had their own kind of intelligence and each struggled with the Others’. If one is good at art and another is good at math, they might both struggle to learn the other’s skills.
Saul Alinsky once noted that most people go through life undergoing a series of happenings that passed through their systems undigested. Happenings only become EXPERIENCES he said when we see, reflect, digest, engage, and incorporate new information into our world views. See also Langer’s work on Mindfulness.
See my explanation elsewhere on Quora about the Life’s Story Exercise. IF we have been mindful of our “happenings” and turned them into “experiences” we have taken “lessons” from the major events of our lives. Some of these events involved great struggles.
When it comes to competing in the world, people who play to their strengths are more likely to succeed than those who play to their weaknesses. SO, self-awareness becomes very important. See my webpage for a Career Option Workbook COW that you can use to develop (for free) a detailed self-assessment—and use that to evaluate options that FIT your habits rather than fight them. Those who don’t know themselves and put themselves in positions where their skill sets are weak, “struggle.”
AND struggling is I believe a part of the natural world and life. As a white belt in taekwondo I/we struggled to remember left foot from right foot and various combinations of moves. After thousands of repetitions, the neural-neural and neural-muscular connections/synapses developed and things became easily habitual. The same is true in the ways we think. Neural-neural pathways. Eric Clapton taught himself to play the guitar with a desire so fierce his fingers bled. Read his autobiography, for example. And he loved doing it.
In my experience, the easy road is not the road to success, to craftsmanship, to insight, to growth, to learning. Peck, The Road Less Traveled. For example.
What’s your purpose in life? Until, at some point, you settle on that, learning and struggling will be just a way of drifting. Create a purpose in life, something that you believe in deeply, and focus—and the learning and struggles will be speed bumps only on your path.
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