Welcome Aboard, Thrill-seekers and Danger-lovers!
Much of my background is as a professional trainer. Early on I learned the value of learning through others. Where did I get started on that?
That’s right! This is Jungle Paul!
Working at Walt Disney World while in college at UCF found me on the one ride in the park where my personality fit to a “T”. Standing up with a microphone and making a fool of myself for 10 minutes at a time, eight hours a day, was right up my alley. I was not Skipper Dan by any means, but I loved the schtick! I was trained and watched and learned from my trainer. I spent time learning through others; what they did well and what they didn’t do well that I could improve upon.
By learning through others I became good enough that they assigned me as a trainer on the ride. I had even more passion for that and poured myself into creating the best training experiences I could.
Jungle Trainer
One of the techniques we applied was a standard formula for the training business:
- Tell me how it’s done
- Show me how it’s done
- Help me to do it
- Allow me to do it on my own
Notice the key there. We didn’t just throw them on the ride and say, “Okay, talk!” We explained and demonstrated first. In Boy Scout training, this is called EDGE (Explain, Demonstrate, Guide, Enable).
They watched and learned how to do it right by learning through others. They absorbed a model to help them do it right. It allowed them to confidently believe they could do it too. This saved them some of the pain of doing it wrong consistently until they finally get it right.
[snaptweet]No matter what you do, learning through others do can help.[/snaptweet]
This is especially true when you pick the right people to learn from. Find people who excel and study them. Read books about them if they exist. Interview them if possible and ask about failures more than successes.
[snaptweet]It’s in failures where the greatest lessons are learned.[/snaptweet]
Take what they do well and add your own flavor to it. Take what they learned from their failures and design ways to avoid it yourself. Save yourself some pain.
Who can you study today to help you become better at what you do? How will you apply their failures to your life? How will you apply their successes?
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