To Be or Not To Be… Tenacious
I would define my academic career thus far with the word tenacity. I have always put in the time, effort, and dedication needed to succeed. Sonke Ahrens’ quoting Luhmann saying, “I only do what is easy…” came as a bit of a shock to me. That is contradictory to my own academic experience.
My tenacity comes from spending most of my life believing I was stupid. I cannot ever remember my parents giving me positive feedback or encouraging me, and so I worked hard, thinking I could somehow earn their love. I hit my stride academically in graduate school. It felt audacious to pursue a Master of Divinity, but I knew that God called me to it. I was often surprised by my achievements, but slowly, I gained confidence in my intelligence. I still struggle with self-doubt, but I remind myself that God called me to this, and He has given me what I need to succeed.
Since grade school I have I loved to read and collect books. I thought that in order to understand a book, you had to read every word. In graduate school, I had classes where I was required to submit a reading report stating that I had read everything assigned. The idea of not reading every single word is foreign to me. While I often highlight and make notes when I read, the methods put forth by Adler and Van Doren in How to Read a Book are critical to learn as I continue. I simply do not have the hours in the day to read as I have read before.
I have much yet to learn about how to read and how to take notes. I consider myself an excellent note-taker in lectures. I can type faster than I write and often take almost verbatim notes in lectures. I can maintain an organized approach even with the most tangential of lecturers. I have said that if I cannot keep up with taking notes in a lecture, the speaker is going too fast. I keep documents of book quotes when working on papers. The problem is that having notes in folders on my computer based on books, classes, dates, or conferences does not help to further questions, knowledge, or insight. It makes finding information difficult. There is little to no ongoing interaction with my notes.
I enjoy writing. I have presented papers at conferences, choosing to write simply for the joy of writing. One of the best habits I put in place during my graduate education was to have an editor for every paper I wrote. Having a second set of eyes read through the material helped to ensure that my writing was concise, understandable, and without glaring grammatical errors.
Moving forward, tenacity is important, but I need to develop my ability to work smarter, not harder. I do not want to simply jump on the bandwagon of a new idea. I want to implement a system that will last. The skills I learn will help me not only in this program, but in my long term goals of continued academic engagement.
About the Author
Becca Hald
Becca is an ordained Foursquare minister, serving as the Online Community Pastor at Shepherd's House Church. She has over twenty-five years of leadership experience both inside and outside the church. Becca has served her community in many capacities ranging from Administrative Assistant and Children’s Ministry Director to Secretary and President of multiple school organizations. She and her husband, Andrew have been married for over 25 years. They have two adult children, Drew and Evelyn. Her great passion is to equip others, to raise awareness about mental health, and to help reduce the negative stigma surrounding mental health issues. In her free time, she loves going to Disneyland, reading, sewing, and making cards.3 responses to “To Be or Not To Be… Tenacious”
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Becca, Thank you so much for sharing your post! I so enjoyed reading your thoughts and learning a bit about your educational history. I, too, was shocked and inspired by Luhmann’s quote that he only did what was easy. Seriously? Is that possible? It sounds quite freeing and even fun. I’m going to try moving in the direction of doing what is easy and following the inspirational energy.
I also can relate to your description of your traditional notetaking practice. It is significant that our notes end up in formats that are not easily accessible and that don’t lend themselves to the interaction of ideas and the generation of new ideas. I recently tossed pages and pages of notes from college and graduate school into the recycle dumpster. I saved them because they represented hours of work and seemed valuable, but I never used them. I’m hoping we can all develop new note-taking systems that will serve us well moving forward and will jump start our creativity in a variety of directions. Looking forward to learning alongside you this year.
I am looking forward to a great year of learning and growing. I, too, recently got rid of pages and pages of notes. I had saved all of my notebooks, readers, etc. from college. More than two decades later, I figured if I had not used them yet, I never would.
Becca,
Thank you for sharing about your tenacious approach to learning! I have been watching you in some of our sessions (while in Cape Town) and you are a fast note taker! I, along with you, am eager to come up with a system of note taking that will encourage questions and aide easy retrieval.
With an aim to study and review, I am sending some of my notes from Dr. Clark’s session on learning. I hand wrote these in session and typing them in this blog now. I am curious if there are some points that I may be missing? Are there a few points that you would want to add?
1) In learning we go from unconsciously incompetent –>aware of what I do not know–> consciously competent–>Unconsciously competent
2) Practicing something you are not good at. Ex. first learning to drive, it takes a lot of energy. You are at a peek learning moment when you don’t have to think about what you are doing…ie. you’ve got it.
3) Values in the program-You can think out loud, open your mouth.
4) In writing ask yourself- what are you saying and then SAY THAT!
5) It is ok to discuss your ignorance. Embrace Jesus in your learning. Always be a learner/fools for Jesus
6) Quote- “As the island of our knowledge grows, the shore of what we don’t know grows”
a. This can feel uncomfortable. Volunteering to feel unqualified. Take some risks. There is nothing new under the sun.
7) Good research- is blindingly obvious. This is because you have expressed it clearly.
8) There is no correct answer. Make suggestions…”Maybe this is a possibility”
9) Reading- Climb your family tree.
a. Start with the Index/bibliography/who are the primary sources?
10) Mike Tursey- Jason enjoyed reading all his works
11) Be curious/Google everything
12) Learn to ask good questions
13) Build a library
a. Collect books you will never read
b. Know where books are/ for quick access
14)Write thoughts down-don’t loose it.
15) Fake it until you make it.
16) Picture what the older you would say.
17) Copy and imitation–>we do things the way others do. No one can copy perfectly. You are putting yourself into it…a part of you.
18) Emulate- write for yourself. Write for the person who is grading you.
19) Step away from the screen.
20) Prime your environment. deep habits/rituals
21) Get bored. Spend time with your own thoughts/brain likes it
22) Keep everything you produce
23) Good work is hard and you will suck daily
24) Share! Why we blog…other people wonder with you. Iron sharpens iron.
25) Show your working out
26) Leave home/travel. Ex. w
27) Surround yourself with people who are better than you. You are the sum of the people you surround yourself with. Be the smallest person in the room.
28) Validation. Beware of your need. The work itself is the validation.
29) Keep an encouraging file ex. Dr. Clark keeps encouraging emails.
30) Keep a journal-what you feel about your learning.
31) Choose what to leave out. Ex. Dr. Suess-Green Eggs and Ham book. He was restricted with how many words he could use. Less is more. its the constraints and limitations.
32) Austin Cleon- Honest Theft: book rec.
I purposefully numbered these notes in order for your to refer to a note that you may want to high light are add too. I know your notes are scrupulous and I would love to know what you think.
Were there any points that Dr. Clark shared which you would want to put into action this year?
I was challenged by Dr. Clarks question: “What’s on the other side of the imposter syndrome?” I have not completely put my finger on the answer to this question but it is an answer that I will not concern myself with. I plan on leaning into the work and believe that the answer to this question will come as I continue to enjoy and press into reading and blogging.
Kristy Newport