To Come to Be Able

Sweat.

I spend most of my day asking people to do things that I know they either have never done before, or are far from being good at.  What I hear, most often, is "I can't."  To which I can only reply, "I know."  It is the condition of being a student that a person be desirous of something, some knowledge or skill which they do not yet possess. This is often incredibly distressing. Learning how to do something, anything, requires us to be unable to do it at the start.  If we could already do it, we would not need to come to class.
Merriam Webster defines the word learn in the following way:
                               
          1)  to gain knowledge or understanding of or skill in by study, 
instruction, or experience <learn a trade>
2) :memorize <learn the lines of a play>

b : to come to be able <learn to dance>

I find that there are two moments of epiphany in learning, the shock of learning that we cannot, and the shock of learning that we can.  The thing that separates them, sweat. Do you have things that you desire?  Are there things that you are studying?  Then accept your failures.  Embrace them, knowing that you have to get them out of the way, in repetition, diligence, and work. Do not use "I can't" interchangeably with "I don't want to try." The people that can, got there in the doing.  So can you.

To watch Debbie Allen give her "Fame Costs" speech from Fame:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtgmnhRQir4




References Cited:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/learner