“You Must Be Polite With Yourself When Learning Something New.”

“You Must Be Polite With Yourself When Learning Something New.”

This phrase was extracted from Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. Giovanni, Elizabeth’s Tandem Language Exchange buddy, gently told her this when she was becoming frustrated with herself for lacking the ability to find the right word in Italian to express herself (boy, do I know that feeling). When I read this quote, I stopped immediately from my reading because I must share it on my blog. It is such a wise and self-loving remark that we ought to use to remind ourselves when we become frustrated at learning.

However, I am the antithesis of Giovanni’s faith.

Maybe it’s out of impatience for every process that takes more than thirty seconds (though I am patient behind the wheels), the inability to love myself beyond merely providing the basic needs (i.e. eating and sleeping) and occasional self-indulgence (i.e. taking time to write or play the piano), the unattainable high expectations I place on myself (therefore, I am never good enough), or simply the lack of time, and therefore lacking the luxury to be patient. Even though I resolved to practice patience for one of my 2009-and-beyond resolutions, it is still not a bad idea to write about it within the perspective of learning. Writing, as you see, is therapeutic to me.

I have always been less than kind to myself, especially during a learning process. The outcome of being an inpatient learner had never been positive; I didn’t learn any faster or more effectively. In fact, more often than not, I would splatter myself with self-induced feeling of stupidity and guilt all over my already reduced ego from countless previous experiences. Einstein said “Insanity is when you do the same thing repeatedly and expect a different outcome” or something to that effect. Um, yes, I suppose I have been somewhat insane by not being polite to myself while learning.

What about Ashley? There’s no doubt that I have been applying the wrong formula to induce her to want to keep on learning. Granted, parents always mean well when we teach our children, but it is still very important that we continue to improve ourselves and catch our own mistakes. That is the only way to stop the flow of negativism into our children’s lives. Ashley is as much as our legacy as she is her own ultra-unique self. Whatever she takes on after us, I want to make sure it is a good trait.

For years, my husband and I place a high emphasis on “good manners” in nurturing Ashley. I think we’re ready to introduce her to a new theme – “You Must Be Polite With Yourself When Learning Something New.”