October 12th, 2024
Learning about what you know
Today I’m going to teach you to identify things you already know.
A default state of mind is to think we don’t know many things. I want to break this limiting belief so that you gain confidence in yourself. You will be able to identify things you can give value with.
Most people think “I don’t have anything interesting to say” so they don’t try. If I knew about this mistake before, I would have created my free illustration course earlier. But you can avoid it right away.
You think you don’t know anything worth sharing
But in reality, you just need to learn about yourself.
- You don't know what you know
- Something obvious to you is not obvious to everyone
- You learn more about a topic when you need to explain it
And here's why these surprised me.
You don't know what you know
This took my by surprise.
It is a frequent feeling with new educators.
You think “I don't have anything worthy of teaching”.
It's only when you start explaining it that you see it’s not some simple knowledge.
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Action Item #1
Start writing about things you want to see how much you know of.
This way, you will put everything in front of you.
Then it will become clear.
Something obvious to you is not obvious for everyone
Experience matters.
And there’s no shortcut around it.
I have been illustrating for over 6 years now.
A lot of Affinity’s UI specific things are now natural to me.
That’s also true for some basic techniques.
But it was not always the case.
And definitely not true for beginners.
Action Item #2
Start writing down all the steps you take when accomplishing something simple to you.
While doing it, ensure you have an absolute beginner in mind.
This will show you how many things are natural to you.
But very valuable to add clarity to others.
You learn more about a topic when you need to explain it
Sometimes you know a topic.
Sometimes you think you know a topic.
It's not until you have to explain it to an absolute beginner that you find out if you really know it.
Turns out you usually don't.
Action Item #3
Start writing down a way to explain something to an absolute beginner.
Think of a person without all the context that you already have.
You might find things you don’t have clarity on yourself.
You learn these so you can explain them. Then repeat.
This simple exercise will make you so much better.
And these are some of the interesting learnings I wanted to share from creating a course for the first time.
If you
- Liked this newsletter,
- Didn't like it, or
- You would be interested in more of these insights in the future
Please reply to this email saying so, or even proposing a topic for me to tackle. I'd love to hear from you.
And that's it for this one. I hope you enjoyed it and see you on the next.
All the best,
Juanma from Creating Lightly
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