I recently found myself a participant in a learning environment that was for a very practical skill. Handwriting. See my blog/article from last week.
 
As someone who is usually at the front of the room creating learning environments, it was initially a pleasure, and then later quite painful (in a good way) to be a participant in a learning environment.
 
As I struggled with the equipment (a brush pen), old habits (how I hold a pen generally) and changes in pressure of the pen on the paper (something I have NEVER thought about) …. I found myself drowning in the learning zone and looking for an exit strategy.
 
That’s when the trainer came over, observed my progress and quietly said, “Slow down”. 
 
It was like an epiphany! It was also a metaphor for where I was at right now in my professional life. I realised that I had been rushing things, in a hurry and feeling panicky about not getting the results I wanted.
 
After 6 hours of patiently sitting, and painstakingly following the steps provided, and thinking about each and every move independently, I started to get some great results.
 
It reminded me of something I learned years ago from learning and development expert, Stephanie Burns. She advised a room full of workplace trainers to look for metaphoric activities to improve your front of room style. If you need more precision in your language, learn fencing. If you need more patience, learn bonsai.
 
In my case, if you need to slow things down, do a class in handwriting.
 
What do you need to learn?  How could you go about doing that?