Learning How To Jump

A short letter on learning to skip not only by constant practice.

Hello, you.

When I started my current job, a little less than a year ago, I didn't know a lot about what I was doing or what I was going into. You see, I was transitioning from a traditional industry to a very digital one. The role while quite similar in title, entailed absolutely different duties and daily ops.

My first few weeks were a struggle, as I tried to balance and implement all I was learning on (or as a consequence of) the job and actually doing the job. I don't know when I finally began to get a hang of it. I just realised that one day, I had a grasp on most of my tasks and was able to think outside of them.

That's not to say I'm good, good or super good; I'm constantly trying to learn and googling things like, “What's the editor of the NYT reading right now?” to help myself get a better grasp of the job. But the important thing is, I'm better than where I started and this is no self aggrandizement; at my appraisal at the beginning of the year, six months after I joined, I got an A! — proof of a job well done.

I'm telling you this because I recently made another small breakthrough in my daily life. On March 29, I tweeted about not knowing how to skip with two feet.

here comes the sun @opeeee_

My entire life of skipping, I've never been able to do the two-feet skipping. 😂

Basically, I couldn't skip like this: 👇🏾

It was a very frustrating day for me. Tobi kept teaching me and I kept telling him I couldn't do it. Everytime I tried, I'd fail and sulk. It felt right to just give up, at least I could skip on one foot. 

Basically, I could skip like this: 👇🏾

To be honest the whole situation made me feel helpless and like a child, but that terrorist boyfriend of mine insisted I keep trying. I started with “10” a day. It was irritating to constantly make mistakes and then pause, when I could hop on one foot at a stretch of 100 every 90 seconds. I continued.

A little dogged part of me didn't want to give up. I never want to admit failure, but who does?

Today, skipping with two-feet at 500 every 5 minutes is bare minimum. 

Comparing the two situations — work and skipping —  reminds me of that thing every primary school teacher said, “Practice makes perfect.” It's not completely true though, there are other factors that help you upskill. It's like with writing; you can't become a writer by constantly writing. You need to read good books, workshop your work in order to get feedback and criticism and put yourself out there.

In this letter, I’ll share a few similar things that helped me with skipping and the new role at my new job:

1. Acknowledging that I didn't know how to skip on two feet was a good start. I was bad at it, there was no use lying to myself.

   

2. Recognising that I wasn't alone. I remember a few months ago, I was talking to Binjo about a colleague who was having anxiety issues because she felt she wasn't doing enough. He asked me to tell her about how he'd faced similar emotions at the start of his career. We all go through that: thinking we're not good enough, that we're bad at our job, etc. Maybe we don't talk about it enough, maybe we should talk about it, about the consequent anxiety, the impostor syndrome. Just knowing that other people who have attained a certain level of success also had this anxiety offers a level of comfort.  

   

3. Realising that I'm not inadequate just because I don't have a particular skill or do not know some things also helped. A lot of two-feet skippers will make you feel bad that you can only skip one-foot at a time. They live fake lives, ignore them. 

4. Constant practice: I skip(ped) literally everyday. 

   

5. Studying and watching tutorials. It's not 'just' skipping if I don't know how to do it. 

6. Having someone to guide me. It always helps to have someone more experienced, who is kind and patient to teach you what you don't know. I'm lucky to have had that. 

7. Looking ahead: now I want to learn how to cross skip. I can hop one leg while skipping, but I can't do it for long. I'd like to learn that. I'd like to go from 1k5 in 20 minutes to 3k in 15. Then maybe 5k and on and on. Have to keep learning. 

   

I hope you find this useful. It's been a long/weird couple of months. One key thing I (re)learned this week is to stop obsessing over things I have no control over and to start obsessing over things I can in fact control. How have you been? Have you learned anything new in the past week? Tell me, I'd love to hear from you. 

Till next Thoughts Day, 

Love Ope.