By Chris Davy
One of the most important things to remember when trying to learn something, or get better at something is that the whole point is to surpass yourself.
Whatever you are capable of right now, after practise and study, are you capable of extra? Of something you weren’t capable of before?
But how do you achieve that? And how do you know if you are achieving that? How do you know if you are surpassing yourself?
Well, let’s look at it like this. My whole ‘S is for…’ mnemonic based system is better known as S is for…Something.
Whilst you are alive, you are always doing something. Always. There isn’t really such a thing as doing nothing. When we say that someone is doing nothing, what we might mean is that they are doing something that we think they shouldn’t be doing; be it the actual thing they are doing, or just the style they are doing that something. Whatever it is, basically we don’t like the way they are going about it.
“Oh whatever mate, you are doing nothing.”
Something like that.
So, when it comes to learning, and here at Silly Linguistics we focus on language, and linguistics, obviously, what is the something you are doing to try and surpass yourself? What is the something that you are doing to try and improve? What is the something you are doing to learn more about language and linguistics?
Reading, writing, speaking, listening, drawing, watching films, listening to music? The number of possibilities is pretty endless.
The key point being that, you actually compartmentalise it like that. You are consciously compartmentalising the something you are doing as an attempt at trying to surpass yourself. You are recognising the effort.
If you don’t recognise it like that, are you really able to surpass yourself?
If you aren’t recognising you’re failed attempts at surpassing yourself as failure, then aren’t you just living in denial? Aren’t you kind of just floating along hoping for the best? Thinking that all of sudden the penny might drop and everything within the realm of languages and linguistics is just going to click and make sense?
Surpassing yourself is an action.
It is a verb.
You have to do it.
You have to put in effort.
So, whilst you might not be able to go full pelt 100% of the time, because you risk suffering burnout, or your recognise that going fully pelt 100% of the time simply isn’t sustainable; going full pelt and giving 100% of your effort is a concept and a real thing.
If you aren’t getting the results you want, are you really giving all that you can?
Are you doing everything you can be doing to surpass yourself?
You don’t have to consciously do it all of the time, but when you want to do it you definitely have to consciously do it.
Strive. Study. Surpass.