Upskilling or cross-skilling (if there is anything like that), whenever I want to do any, as I go through the syllabus or scope of what I’m supposed to do to be knowledgeable in that skill, I tend to develop fear and doubt.
The workload kinda hits you in the face and you are overwhelmed with new information wondering where to start learning and applying.
Fear and doubt breed all manner of questions:
Am I sure I’m ready to go through the stress of another learning process?
Is it not best to quit now?
Must I learn this one too?
How about I just pay someone to do it for me?
One major thing I use to hold myself down is to ensure it’s something that cost me money.
The idea of the money I invested to get that knowledge makes me calm down and patiently go through the training.
READ ALSO: Are you afraid of launching out?
In 2019, I was working an 8 am-5 pm job when I enrolled for sewing lessons.
I told my trainer that I will be coming to her shop every evening after work from Mondays – Fridays (5:30 pm-8 pm) for 3 months of training.
We agreed on the fees and began. I was scared because I was wondering how I would endure the tiredness of office work and then start sewing classes.
On my first day, she taught me all about the bodice and taking measurements, then introduced me to the parts of the sewing machine.
The next day, I began pedaling. Looking at her pedaling was so easy until I stepped on the pedal.
I struggled with this pedaling for 4 days and couldn’t get it right. I was beginning to think of giving up and was somehow grateful that I haven’t paid her.
In my mind, I was already conceiving the lines of how I will tell her “This ministry is not for me, that this was my last day of coming to her shop” and then convince her to collect money just for the one-week stress.
While all this was going on in my head, my trainer was not inside the shop. I was alone with her sister watching me. All her workers had gone home.
Her sister walked up to me and said, “Stand up, let me show you how to pedal”. By the way, if you can’t master the manual pedal, you can use this electric foot pedal attached to your manual machine.
I stood up already tired and frustrated and ready to go home. Then she said I should watch her leg movements while she pedals.
That was it. I immediately got it right. With that joy, I paid for the training and completed the 3 months with all the stress.
Why share this?
We let fears get in quickly and easily deprive us of life’s learning process.
We actually give up when our breakthrough is a second away.
Patience is cultivated by subjecting oneself to the learning process.
I’m not perfect, but whenever I think of upskilling or cross-skilling, I always use this experience to help me mellow down and take the training.
I use it to convince my mind that if I could get into sewing, then I should patiently go through anything.
Be encouraged.
