Years ago, I talked my mom into taking a life-drawing course with me.  She agreed and, bless her heart, she drew the human body using geometric forms.  Now, the instructor was an inspiration to me, before this - she suffered with a debilitating stammer and still managed to effectively teach her classes!  At any rate, poor mom began with squares, triangles, etc., to which my instructor said, "Wow!  That's fantastic that you've broken down the form into manageable structures!  Now, let's see if we can soften this line, here..." and, she would demonstrate on mom's paper exactly what she was trying to convey.

All of the students in this class had all of their work out for the mid-term critique.  Anybody out there who has endured a critique can appreciate the level of tension - some instructors are kind and nurturing, while others are vicious and cruel.  Our instructor was nurturing and enthusiastic and we each laid out our work, in chronological order.  To my mom's surprise, she had gone from rendering stick figures to defining human form in a recognizable way!  In fact, there were a number of students who had taken the course as an elective (not Fine Arts majors) and had improved dramatically in just a short time.

When we were gathered for our final critique, mom had all of her sketches and drawings laid out, again in chronological order.  She didn't need to be present for the critique as she had audited the course, but she was so pleased with her own progress that she was actually looking forward to it!  Everyone nodded and gasped as we checked out each others' progression on paper - everyone (and, I do mean, EVERYONE) had improved in rendering form, light, shadow, and composition.  In fact, a couple of students changed their majors to Fine Arts as a result of this one positive experience.

This experience can apply to any interest!  Finding a patient, nurturing instructor is the second-most important step in learning something new.  The first step is to understand that we can accomplish something new and, possibly, intimidating as long as we have the desire to do it for our own enjoyment. 

On the flip side, I once had a friend who refused to admit that she needed to learn anything.  Because of this, any attempt that she made at something new was always a washout for her.  From Alcoholics Anonymous to knitting a scarf, she always had a handy excuse as to why she quit whatever it was that she was attempting.  For instance, she said, "I read the Big Book and I've done everything in it, already." She quit meetings because, "...they put too much emphasis on religion." Sadly, a lot of us out there set ourselves up for the same pattern.  The thing that might have helped this person would have been to realize that excuses are like BEhinds - everyone has one!  It was this gal's fear of failure (translates into:  fear of being forced to accept that she did not knowing everything about everything) that created her barrier, not a genetic disorder that prevented her from accomplishing something. 

Realizing that we're not perfect and that everyone started from the same spot, we can learn anything from trigonometry to soap-making! 

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