Easy is a word that we throw around maybe a little too often. Once we have mastered a task whether learning to tie our shoes or solving an algebraic equation, its familiarity can make that task second nature to us. Our instinct when teaching or trying to help others with that same task is to tell them reflexively, “it’s easy.”
This well-intentioned remark designed to encourage someone to try something that may seem daunting can actually have unintended consequences.
If someone struggles with a task we label as easy, it can actually be demotivating, demoralizing and damaging to one’s confidence. Making us question ourselves; “If it’s so easy and I can’t do it – what does that make me?”
I heard this fact at our Social Mobility Lab Summit this week, as the President of City College of New York, Vince Boudreau, used it as an example of “things we can do” to apply research in service of improving a person’s odds of success in life.
Rather than calling something easy (because it may be for us now), it would be more helpful if we instead shared more about our own learning journey. Perhaps saying, “I struggled with it at first but was able to figure it out.” Or reminding ourselves and others that our ease with something was the result of someone first helping us out and the fact that we have now been doing it for a while.
Learning almost anything in life requires effort, focus, repetition, patience, perspective, and encouragement. It also often includes failure and struggle. When we reduce our own learning story to, “I learned how to do that, it was easy,” we do a disservice to ourselves and others.
After all, no one nailed tying their shoes the first time around, let alone algebra.
This Week’s Recommendation: If you need another reminder about what you were like when you were young and learning, listen to Miley Cyrus’s song, Younger You. It is a simple song with a powerful message.
Consider sharing this with a friend who might be struggling with learning something.