Self-driven learning

I remember a couple of years back reading a story written by someone who took a "Scout" class from Tom Brown's Tracker School. The author talked all about the intensity of the whole experience, you had to be aware all the time because someone might be "scouting" you and there might be non-lethal traps set on any of the trails that you used on a regular basis. There were raiding parties at night so no one got much sleep. And the big event toward the end of class was the "blindfolded drum stalk" where the students are taken out to a cedar swamp, blindfolded and made to stalk through the swamp to locate the sound of a slowly beating drum.

When I read that story it made me really want to go take that class so that I could have the same experience. In fact I would still love to take one of Tom's Scout classes but I realized the other day that my perspective on learning and experience had changed drastically since the time that I read that story. Back then I felt that the only way that I could have the experience of doing all those things and the opportunity to learn the skills of the Apache Scouts was to pay a fee and travel to New Jersey to take a class. But on Saturday night we had some friends over for night games and we decided to do a blindfold drum stalk. The experience was phenomenal but the main point I want to make about it is that it was extremely easy to do. I didn't need to pay instructors to tell me to do it I just got together with some friends and did it. There will always be mystery around what you are unfamiliar with but the only way to learn is to do it, mentor or not. The learning always comes from your own experience and the teacher is just there to point the way.

So whatever it is that you want to do or learn just get started. Of course there is tremendous value in having someone more experienced guide you in your learning journey but not having a mentor is no excuse for not learning. I challenge everyone who reads this to try something new that you have been putting off and to do it in the next week. I promise you won't regret it.