Learning Changes Us… or Does It?

by Barbara Hartsook on February 27, 2010 · 31 comments

Learning is such fun. It’s profitable. And it changes us.

Using My New Brushes

I made new Painter brushes in class, and then painted with them. :)

But only if we apply it.

Four of us rode together, returning home from a weekend motivational conference. We broke the trip in half by stopping for lunch.

I had picked up on an idea early in the weekend and was excited to try it once I got home. And so I asked the others, friends and business associates of mine, ‘What will you all do differently this week because of the weekend?’

‘Read, read, read,’ said one.

‘Contacts,’ said another.

The third bit into her Quizno sub and said nothing.

Hmmm… We had just spent five hours in the car, discussing the impact of the many speakers we’d heard.  Everyone had thoughts to share. Opinions, that is, but apparently no ideas to implement.

If we learn and don’t apply, what have we learned?

‘Oh, but we learned so much! And it’s all so exciting!’ All three agreed.

However, I thought, nothing they learned had translated to making a difference in daily activity. So did they really learn it?

Collage I did of Lys Sketching and Journaling... Planning her Tomorrow

I have led workshops and spoken for business folk over the years. My topics centered around self-growth: self-knowledge, esteem, image, value, relationships, attitude, passion and pursuit.

But that day at lunch, I wondered how much difference any of it had made?

If we don’t occasionally change something we do, or modify it somehow, or add to what we’re already doing, how do we grow?

My three friends each had dreams of a fuller life, and could talk endlessly about them…

…Yet they saw nothing in the status quo to tweak.

Is life different, or better, or are we more accomplished and profitable just because we know more?

There’s a saying that translates more or less like this:

If I do today what I’ve always done, tomorrow I will have what I’ve always had.

Must we make drastic changes?

True, technology changes overnight and new concepts greet us with our morning coffee. And while it’s an exciting time to live, I don’t think we need to change drastically.

I’m talking about tweaking our daily routines to allow us to apply an insightful bit of learning. It’s refining our chosen paths to become who we want to be.

It’s called growth.

  • What do you think?
  • Do you attend conferences or classes, online and on-site?
  • Do you take away an idea you can implement? So you discuss them with others?
  • Will working with that idea change you somehow? Help you grow?

Thanks so much for coming. Have a fresh cup of coffee and ponder with us a bit… Enjoy your day.

Barb

P.S. Some sites that teach and inspire me to grow:

I take classes to improve my life. Here are some: DigitalArtAcademy — Painting Classes and webinars; Creative Techs, — Live Painting Classes; LVSonline — Blogging and Twitter and CSS classes. And I read so many blogs that teach me to do better what I love doing.

Annually, Liz Strauss and Terry Starbucker conduct a Successful and Outstanding Bloggers conference — SOBCon — to educate (and inspire) business people, as individuals and as team players, to connect and care and change and grow. Notice the fourth bullet point! :)

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Do Sports Teach Kids How to Live Life Beyond the Game?

by Barbara Hartsook on February 19, 2010 · 20 comments

The Superbowl is behind us, and with March coming, Madness will soon keep us near the flat-screens. Shortly after that we’ll have The Opener.

All American sports… football, basketball, baseball… soccer, track, volleyball.

Great fun… but are sports good for life beyond the game? Can learning to play sports teach kids how to live life?

web-tiger-the-coach_edited-1

Tiger Ellison the Coach, Handing off a Legacy for Life Painting is framed, 34x40 inches, and hangs in the Glenn Tiger Ellison Sports Complex, Middletown, Ohio

I was raised in a football family

with a dad who taught life through his coaching and his teaching.

Tiger Ellison taught English, from writing to reading the classics, to self-expression through poetry and story, to learning about and developing unique creative ideas when they were needed.

And he coached football. No, more than that… he met young boys where they were, with their emerging manliness and guttural speech and raging energy, and he suited them up to learn how to play life.

So, first in the classroom; then on the gridiron.

He taught team work, memorizing play strategies, learning to think on their feet, creating ways to make it work when all hell threatened, getting up when knocked down, focusing on the goal instead of on the opponents who wanted to trounce them into oblivion. Making decisions for the good of the squad. Believing in the possibilities when the odds said impossible. Running the unexpected… these are what he taught.

Life lessons?

Yep. He used to ask: “When the chips are down and the jig is up and there’s hell to pay — will you pay it?”*

*Editing note* This was asked rhetorically in speeches he gave on leadership, on the field and off. Explained, it meant: When circumstances threaten, and there seems no way up and out of them, will you change directions and figure out another way to make it work and dig down to find the courage to do it?

Halfway through the football season my senior year our team had not scored a win. Four losses and one tie does not make a good season .

When the players walked the school halls with their heads down…

When those players were no longer having fun on the field, feeling defeated…

Tiger Ellison drove the long road home one night after practice and stopped to watch a bunch of grade-schoolers playing  their own brand of football.

As he watched them run and throw wherever the defenders were not, a new offense began to take shape. With these youngsters’ very basic principle:

Line up non-traditionally, run several potential receivers down the field, and throw the ball where the defenders are not.

Was this possible within the accepted rules of high school football? They had nothing to lose by trying it, and everything to gain if they embraced it and made it work.

Which it did!

The new offense started life with ‘The Lonesome Polecat”  play — named thus when one of the other coaches said it ’stank.’ Well, stink it might, but it thrilled those kids… and they scored big their last 5 games against teams who didn’t know what hit them.

Our kids didn’t buckle under the ‘chips’ — they restacked them! And won!*

This year’s SuperBowl was a beautifully executed game — by both teams. I enjoyed every play. (Well, being a Colts fan, not the interception so much. But both teams were stellar, in my opinion. And, you gotta’ love a good passing game.)

I look forward to March Madness as well — our family get quite involved in dollar pools amongst ourselves. And we have so many athletes among our kids and grandkids. :)

I believe — because I have lived with it all my life — that sports can play a major roll in teaching our kids how to live.

What’s your sport or game? How has it taught you to live?

Coffee’s hot… fill a mug and add whatever goodies make it yummy for you, and share your thoughts.

Thank you for coming by…

Barb

P.S. Patty Bechtold, a story-teller and blogger, tells a fun story about her Superbowl Sunday. And draws inferences to the contradictions of us humans. A very enjoyable read.

*Future teams refined the offense which became known as the Run and Shoot Football offense — now widely used in high schools, colleges, and the NFL.

In future posts, I’ll tell you where some of those players are now, and how their lives were affected by having had Tiger Ellison as a teacher and coach.

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How to Paint a Portrait from a Casual Snapshot – A Tutorial

February 10, 2010

Even the most casual snapshot can be a treasure for finding a reference for painting a portrait. If it draws your eye more than once, chances are you sense a story to be told, written, or painted.
This stock photo was given to participants in a painting contest at Innographx.com/forum a year ago, with instructions to [...]

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We Attract to Us That Which We Are

February 3, 2010

We attract to us that which we are…

I read that years ago. I was young enough it stuck as a piece of esoteric philosophy… Understood only by the initiated…
But as the years have evolved, the truth of that statement has manifested itself. Slowly perhaps, but none the less. Life has initiated me, and I know [...]

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What Do You Think Makes an Effective Tweet on Twitter?

January 30, 2010

@beanfair asked the question on Twitter: What do YOU think makes an effective Tweet? Is it a call to action? A tease that makes you curious? a great link or…?

My answer is Yes. All those things. I am a life-learner, curious beyond measure, and ever-antsy to do something! so Yes, all those things.

A call to [...]

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Do We Doodle to Doodle, Solve a Problem, Find a Design?

January 22, 2010

Why do we doodle? Just to pass the time? To find a design? To examine patterns?
If I have a pen in hand and paper near by, I’m going to doodle. My name, a curved line, what’s being said by someone else — and that may also be in a curved line — or sometimes words [...]

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Name that Painting in Six Words

January 15, 2010

I’m not very good at naming things. I agonize over headlines and story titles, anything that must be told quickly and completely.

I love words, you see. They tell pictures…

Even giving title to a painting challenges me — I guess because I want the viewer to relate visually and emotionally and create their own stories. Wordy [...]

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How Do You Handle Hurtful Remarks?

January 12, 2010

It’s universal you know… thinking whatever offensive, hurtful remark gets thrown at us is because of us. It isn’t always…
Liz Strauss says to distance ourselves from the event. Her points are excellent — think, think, realize, decide, and think some more. Read the point specifics on her blog…
I’d add this: Realize the offensive comment is [...]

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Story Puts the Happy in New Year

January 6, 2010

I have to share a happy new year story with you. It’s called A Walk in the Snow with Not-So Strangers.
I was roaming the Internet from the Technorati site, and through a series of clicks from here, found myself on Katie Paine’s blog. In the side bar were titles of recent posts, and this [...]

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What Do You Want to Do In This New Year?

January 5, 2010

Tidy up. That’s what I want to do. Sort out. Pitch. Give away. Save. Make room for what’s to come. Get rid of the clutter on my desk, in my closets, and in my schedule.
It’s that time of year we think about new goals, shedding pounds, prettying up our homes, wishing folks Happy…  these are [...]

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