Embrace The Slog
By: Zachary Styles
Tags: Studies, Journal, Research, Postgrad, Learning

“When you learn that the only way to improve at something is to surrender to it and to learn from the process, you’ve won half the battle.”

A Thought Exercise

I knew when I started this postgraduate journey that I would be pushed somewhat. I knew that I would be encouraged to step out of my comfort zone and to improve not only my design skills, but also my thinking. What I didn’t know, was exactly how that was going to happen. Call it blind faith, or call it ignorance. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that I wasn’t wrong, and you should know that if this is something you want to do yourself, then prepare yourself for what’s in store.

I’ll give you two words:

Research, & Writing

During my high-school career, I don’t remember doing much research beyond what was right in front of me. In fact, the largest research-heavy projects I did were the art assignments where we had to write an essay of a particular period or artist. I thought those 300-word essays were tough. And when we got the 600-word ones? Well, I damn near lost 5kg in sweat when I saw those three numbers at the top of the exam sheet.

Now I feel like I can write that before I have to brush my teeth and leave for work in the morning. What happened? Where did I suddenly decide that it wasn’t so difficult to write something? To be honest with you, I don’t really know where the pivotal moment was. I could have been on a Monday mid-morning break between lectures, or it could have been a gradual feeling over the course of two years. I couldn’t tell you with any certainty what, where or when it happened; but what I can say with confidence is that somewhere a switch was flipped.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to toot my own horn here by any means. I’m merely fleshing out something I’ve been thinking about recently. Why do I find research easier nowadays than I used to?

Am I more patient than I was before?

Have I been given more time to dive a little deeper before I tap away on my keyboard?

Or was I simply just taught how to research properly to the point where it comes more naturally?

Maybe, it’s a combination of those three questions. Or maybe, just maybe, somewhere someone told me to embrace it.

I think back to those art history papers and I remember how much of a drag they were to write. We practically had to memorise historical facts — dates, times, periods. I’m not a fan of memorisation for education. I don’t think it’s any more valuable than contextual knowledge. But, I’ve only come to that conclusion after experiencing contextual knowledge through my undergrad.. Now that I know what it’s like to have contextual knowledge, research and writing seem so much more seamless. It feels smooth.

So, here’s why I think I didn’t enjoy research and writing back in high-school:

I wasn’t writing about something I wanted to write about; and

I wasn’t writing for learning, I was writing for grades

My undergrad changed that. Now I knew what I wanted to do. And when I didn’t know something, I had to either figure it out or seek someone else who had figured it out — i.e. the internet. While we had textbooks to learn from, that wasn’t our primary mode of learning. We learnt by doing. We learnt by creating. And we learnt by failing. Over and over again.

I remember there were times where I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know where to start. I didn’t even know where to begin looking until someone guided me in the right direction. I wasn’t great at it to begin with, and I’ve still got a lot to learn; but if I compare how I write and research now with how I did back then, I’m leagues away. I embraced it. I had to figure it out.

I know most people would turn their noses at being told to figure something out. “Why am I here then, if I have to learn this on my own?” Those people want knowledge to be given to them. They want it easy and they want it fast. Here’s a hard truth about life and about learning: it should be difficult. It needs to be difficult or else it holds no value, and value is important. Those people who want knowledge given to them enter the real world and experience the shocks of their lives. It doesn’t work that way.

There will be some friction at the beginning. There always is when you’re doing something meaningful. But only when you embrace it can you actually improve. When you learn that the only way to improve at something is to surrender to it and to learn from the process — and the occasional slog of actually doing it — you’ve won half the battle.

I didn’t know how I was going to be tested with this course, all I knew was that I was in it to learn. That, I believe, was the first victory in this latest chapter of my education. I embraced it, and I’m glad that I did that.

I’ve known many people throughout my adult life who bombed out of something because they weren’t prepared for it. And here’s another hard truth: you’re never prepared. But, that doesn’t mean you can’t figure it out and work through the obstacles. Some of my best friends are the people who embraced things either with me, or alongside me. They knew that they didn’t know something, but they were willing to embrace the slog of figuring it out.