Permission to Play: Doing stuff you aren't good at

Rachel Burnham writes:  Last week I was interviewed about my approach to Sketchnoting and how I got started.  As I talked, the questions posed made me look again at my own journey into Sketchnoting and my underlying attitudes to drawing.  I was remembering the messages I picked up at secondary school from our art teacher, which were rather less than encouraging.  One year we had to do a pencil drawing of an object, set by the teacher, each week for homework, which she marked out of 10 and if you received less than 5, you had to do it again.  By the end of the term, I was having to redo 8 pictures every week.

One of my reflections from last week’s interview, is that one of my patterns is to do stuff that I enjoy, even when I am not very good at it.  Sometimes that is about our self-perception of our competence and sometimes it really is the case. Sometimes it is simply that it is new to us.

Last year, I at last had the chance to take a flamenco dance class – it was so much fun.   I enjoyed the sessions, the teacher was encouraging and created a helpful atmosphere for learning – the rest of the group were great – I adored the dancing.  And I was sooo bad at the footwork involved!  To the extent, that I am rather surprised that my left foot is actually connected to the rest of my body – it doesn’t appear to receive many of the messages sent!  But it was a wonderful experience all the same.

I usually go swimming on a Friday night – pre-lockdown, this was my ‘let go of work’ habit for every Friday.  I am definitely not a good swimmer, but I am a happy swimmer – l love swimming in my neighbourhood pool – the way the light glints on the water, the letting go of the week, the focus on breathing, the tired, but relaxed limbs afterwards. 

When I say I am not a good swimmer I am not being modest.  I really only can swim breast stroke and I am too scared to go down the deep end of the pool – I do 80% lengths only.  I hate that feeling of being out of my depth. However, my friend, Liz, challenged me to swim 5 miles over the course of June 2019 and I did it (without once going down the deep end) – it is my only sporting achievement and I am immensely proud of it!

Often we avoid doing things that we aren’t good at or perceive ourselves to be not good at.  In Andy Lancaster’s book ‘Driving Performance Through Learning’ he includes a chapter on ‘mistakes’.  He writes ‘From an early age, we pick up that errors are to be avoided and, if committed, concealed.’ (pg 292)  Doing stuff we aren’t good at can mean making mistakes and not performing at our best.  Our UK schooling system has tended to encourage us to focus on things that we are good at and drop subjects that we find more challenging.  Doing stuff that we aren’t good at (or perceive ourselves to be not good at) can feel risky, uncomfortable, scary – a whole bunch of troubling feelings.  

In a professional setting it can also feel ‘that we should know how to do this already’, that less than perfect competence is unacceptable and we fear of ‘loss of face’ particularly when we are employed for your professional expertise.  I wonder if the more you are used to feeling confident, highly skilled and in control the greater the temptation to not risk putting yourself in a situation where this isn’t case?

I have been pondering these ideas in relation to the field of Learning & Development and the many trainers and other facilitators who have continued to concentrate on face to face delivery – until the challenges of the current pandemic.   And also reflecting on the areas where I personally find it uncomfortable to do stuff I am not good at and as a result avoid doing.

There are many downsides to avoiding things that we aren’t good at: from becoming unpractised at handling these troubling feelings; to losing out on getting better; to being unwilling to risk trying out new ways of working or skills; to just missing out on doing stuff that you could be enjoying.   Of course, there are well-founded arguments for playing to our fundamental strengths, but if we understand this too narrowly; there is a risk that we begin to focus more and more limitingly on what we are good at now – that our territory of confidence becomes increasingly small.  That our capacity to adapt & develop is damaged.

When I am introducing people to Sketchnoting in my workshops, one of the common barriers is the perception held by many people that they can’t draw.    Learning from my experience of helping people to overcome this barrier, here are some of the things that can overcome our reluctance to do stuff we are not good at:

·       Seeing others role model this behaviour – look out for people who do and be inspired by them.

·       Encouragement from others – find a community, network or even just one person who you can practise with.

·       A more realistic approach to perfection – some times we set our goals too high and it becomes easier not to start, rather than not reach them.  When drawing, I often comment that nature is often wonky, so it is fine if our drawing is wonky too.   It may be helpful to think about when perfection is really needed – for example, an architect may need to be able to draw a perfectly straight line, but a Sketchnoter doesn’t.

·       Take time to notice what the experience brings you – whether the pleasure of doing something or any improvements in your skills, however small

·       Permission and time to play – give yourself permission ‘to draw for the bin’.  Carve out time and opportunities when you can mess about, without it feeling high pressure. Permission to play is a great gift given to us all – why not make use of it.

 

End note – Two weeks after completing my 5 mile swim, I at last made it to the end of the pool.  My swimming is still not great, but it is improving all the time.  

 

Rachel Burnham

11/8/2020

I help individuals and organisations to work and learn more effectively, particularly though using the tools of Sketchnoting and the curation of resources.  I make use of Sketchnoting to introduce people to using visuals to aid thinking, working and learning.  I help people to manage for themselves the information they need to stay up-to-date in their professional work.