Back on the Bandwagon

A few days earlier, I'd written a post "A Thing Called Anxiety."

I don't regret having written it. It's important to note the good as well as the bad, so long as you frame it with the intent of learning from it.

And I did learn quite a lot from that short dip into hesitation and anxiety.
The cause, I realize, was that I was over-thinking and obsessing over what the "right" way to practice is, the "right" way to pace myself.

There may be better-than or worse-than options, but it's silly of me to try and confine myself to some pre-defined parameters before I'd even met those parameters.
In other words, I needed to stop thinking about what I'd do and simply go out and do it!

It's worked for me very well! Rather than looking at my writer with some apprehension ("Oh, no. Should I really start moving onto the next lesson before I've 100% mastered the previous one??"), I decided to simply take the first step.
Moving on was so liberating (I've just completed lessons 6, 7, and 8 in quick procession)! I realized that moving on to new material doesn't necessarily mean that I'm abandoning previous material. In fact, previous material is intertwined so closely with the new letters/words/concepts, that it made reviewing them that much easier.

So, instead of practicing looking like this:
old old old old old...

It ended up feeling more like this:
NEW old NEW NEW old old NEW old...

(Notice that "old" got a face-lift!)
The mix-up of new and old really helps to keep things fun and, well, new!
Plus, I find that previously reviewed material actually flows off the fingers easier.

I think it may be similar to the study how construction workers who took regular breaks every 20 minutes ended up completing more work than workers who just worked straight throughout breaks.

Breaking up reviewed material can feel less like hitting your head against the wall, and more like progress!

So, word to the wise, don't mash those keys into the ground repeating monotonous drills. Keep it fresh and fun!