Written by: Julie Dodge on June 23, 2014

“Here’s the truth: ‘finding’ time is a myth.”[i]

I’ve never been a highly disciplined person. I work well to deadlines, but pacing myself for something without a deadline has always been a challenge. When I care about something, however, I make time to do it. And what do I care about? People, mostly. The problem about caring about people is that they are messy. They are unscheduled. Genuinely caring about people means focusing on relationship and setting aside timelines to “be” with them, whether it’s the middle of the day, or the middle of the night. Now usually, I have pretty good boundaries with people. I don’t answer my phone after certain hours. I make sure that I get rest. I take care of myself. I do these things because being with people takes energy and without energy, it’s really hard to be present.

I take the same approach in my work. I’m a social worker, an educator, and in ministry because I care about people. I care about their hearts and about their challenges. I care about the societal factors that impact them. I teach subjects that I care about, and because it matters to me that my students are ready and able to do good work in the field. I teach them so that they can do well, but I also care that they become healthy people who are able to be present in this field. Such an approach extends beyond the classroom, into mentoring, coaching, and modeling healthy lifestyle and balance.  I write grants for organizations, people, and issues that I care about. It’s when I do my best work. I don’t write arts grants. Not because I don’t think art is important, but because it isn’t what motivates me.

The past two months have been full of inconvenient interruptions, also known as people. Some of it is joyful: new babies, new relationships. Some of it is messy, painful, struggles of relationships, death, and illness. The time that I had anticipated would be slower paced has been packed with high level concerns, and frankly, I’m a little tired. Perhaps a lot.

When it came to choosing a new skill to learn in twenty hours, I had two primary thoughts. First: where will I “find” twenty hours? I’m already feeling tired and stretched.  Second: what do I care enough about to invest those twenty hours? I am significantly late writing this post. Primarily this is because I didn’t “find” the time in the sporadic schedule of on people and interruptions over the past two months. Finding time became the first big lesson in applying the principles to learning a new skill. You can’t find time. You have to make time.

The second issue is the motivation. Kaufman, in his book, “The First 20 Hours: How to Learn Anything… Fast”, notes that the first task in learning a new skill is to find a “lovable” project.[ii] You have to care about it. You have to want to learn it. Given the past several months, I wanted to choose something that would not be a burden; would not be just another thing to do. I wanted to choose something that would be refreshing and encouraging to me. I thought about yoga. For years my doctors have said that would be good for me, and that might be the next thing I choose – perhaps next month. But I also love music. I have always been involved in music. In music I find a way to express my thoughts and feelings. It can be shared with others, and it can be just for me.

I started playing the piano at 5, and played the trumpet throughout my school years. But like Kaufman, I found that playing the trumpet is a nuisance when you are young and living in apartments. I didn’t have a useful keyboard after college either. So I took up the guitar. Today I’m a decent strummer, and I lead worship at church. But I’ve wanted to improve my skills and learn to play blues guitar. I want to be able to just pick up my guitar ad pick out a melody of my own, without reading chords. That’s my performance goal: to be able to play for myself without pulling out a book. In the long run, I think it will help my ability to serve and lead worship, but for now, I just want to do something that I love, that will be refreshing to me.

I bought a blues guitar book and DVD a few years ago, but never got around to finding time for it. This time I realized I needed to make time for it. I know that I can’t just sit and start playing for an hour straight, twice a day. My fingers will be too sore, and that would become a barrier. So I chose to put in two, thirty minute sessions a day, once in the morning, and once in the evening. I skimmed most of Kaufman’s chapters after the first two, but focused and read in detail his chapter in playing the ukulele, as it was most similar to my own goals.

I am on day five of learning blues guitar. My fingers are sore, but it’s manageable. I enjoy that I have a jump start because I already play the guitar, but I also have learned some bad habits over the years that I am unlearning. Right now the focus is on learning to pick specific strings (instead of full chords) and I am currently working on pneumonic scales. I have found that the combination of the DVD lessons and the written instruction is vital. I started by reading the first lesson and trying to follow it, but I just got confused. Then when I played the DVD and saw and heard what I was supposed to be playing, it made a whole lot more sense. It also gives me almost immediate feedback, because as I am able to play along with the instructor through repetition, I get that sense of accomplishment.

I am not yet to the point where playing is refreshing. Scales aren’t particularly inspiring. But the program I chose helps because in each lesson you actually get to do a little something fun – learning a new riff or blue’s progression – that makes me feel like I’m actually playing music and not just drills. But the drills are what get me to the music.

Reading the book, and my experience so far, has cause me to also reflect on how I teach my students. I teach students how to work with people. There are not often quick results. There are not always clear, “aha!” moments. People are messy, and serving them well requires a depth of understanding about human motivation, development, context, and learning how to apply the right “tools” at the right time. I have always enjoyed doing projects around the house because it’s one of the few times that I get to see immediate results. Working with people doesn’t typically provide immediate results. So, how do I help my students work through this? How do I help them learn skills that take years (perhaps a lifetime) to master? How do I help them avoid the exhaustion of burnout? Kaufman helped to articulate some clear learning goals, the first four of which I have loosely adapted for my context.

1. Find what you love. (And make sure it’s the people you serve, not your own need.)
2. Focus on one thing at a time.
3. Understand that basic skills are a strong starting place.
4. Trust the process. All of the micro-skills will eventually come together.

It’s not a perfect transfer, but I think it will help me in my teaching, and I hope in my student’s learning.

About the Author

Julie Dodge

Julie loves coffee and warm summer days. She is an Assistant Professor of Social Work at Concordia University, Portland, a consultant for non-profit organizations, and a leader at The Trinity Project.