Global Issues
Learning: The Degree Of Latent Potential -By Idris Jimoh
Learning at the beginning often make no difference until you cross a critical threshold and unlock a new level performance. What many people refuse to accept is that in the early and middle stage of learning, there is always a Valley of disappointment.
What people think should happen and what actually happens in learning.
Learning: The acquisition of knowledge or skills through study, experience or being taught.
Degree of Latent Potential: A stage in the process that exists but is not currently active or cannot be seen currently but is capable of becoming real as a result of consistency.
Valley of Disappointment: A period where people feel discouraged after putting in weeks, months or years of hard work without experiencing any result.
It is a fact that an impatient person cannot grow a bamboo, because bamboo can nearly be seen for the first five years of planting as it is building extensive root system underground before exploding ninety feet into the air within six weeks. The same thing goes for a baby girl and boy, They may have some similar characteristics to their parents, but they will not look just like them at an early age. As the baby matures it will look more like the parents.
Similarly, an impatient person cannot learn. Learning at the beginning often make no difference until you cross a critical threshold and unlock a new level performance. What many people refuse to accept is that in the early and middle stage of learning, there is always a Valley of disappointment.
You expect to make progress in a linear fashion and it’s frustrating how ineffective it could be when you are not making progress. It doesn’t feel like you are going anywhere. However, this work is not wasted, it was simply being stored. It is not until much later that the full value of previous learning is revealed. Learning is like a compounding process. The most powerful outcome is delayed.
Another reason why it is always hard for people to learn is because people make a few input and fail to see a tangible result then decide to stop. For instance, you have been going to the gym every day for a month and you ask yourself “ why can’t I see any changes in my body?” once this kind of thinking takes over, you begin to withdraw from the gym and you will not see the result again. In order to make a meaningful difference, you need to persist long enough to break through the degree of latent potential.
When you find yourself struggling to learn, it is not because you are not intelligent or brilliant or not putting much effort towards improvement. It is because you have not yet crossed the critical threshold, that is the degree of your latent potential.
Complaining about not catching up in learning at the early stage is like complaining about a 6 months old baby not calling “Daddy” or “Mummy” at the early stage when his brain is still under development. Your work is never wasted, it is just being stored. All the action happen at a particular degree of time.
As a human, we reach our degree of latent potential of learning at different time. with this, you should stop comparing another person level of intelligence and brilliance to yourself as they have made lots of sacrifices to gain the knowledge they now have, and also, your time of assimilation is always a difference. Rather than putting yourself side by side with someone you know is more intelligent than you, ask yourself these questions: How long will it take me to reach my degree of latent potential? If you are able to answer this question successfully, you will not have a problem in learning.
Finally, whenever you are learning and nothing seems to be looking good, think about a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. At the hundred and one blow, the rock splits into two. Do you think it was the last blow that did it? No! It wasn’t, it was all that he had done before.
Learning is a curve and not a straight line. That is why it takes time to get the outcome you desire. The more time you paid to acquire a piece of knowledge and skills the greater the understanding.
ABOUT THE WRITER:
Idris Jimoh his Accountant and He is passionate about writing to inform, educate and update the public with Sufficient and reliable information on the history and recent trend across the globe. His work is open for criticism and improvements.
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