July 17, 2025

Why It's Essential You Learn Something New (especially if you think you're an expert)

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As adults, we don't often put ourselves in the position of being a novice. In this episode, I'm sharing why I've gone back to basics in my professional life, and the uncomfortable truth that despite years of experience, stepping back into a learner's role can trigger our ego by forcing us to confront our poor practices. Through my experiences, I highlight the importance of intellectual humility and the courage to unlearn old patterns in order to grow and stay relevant. Embracing the discomfort of being a beginner not only supports personal growth, mental agility and psychological flexibility but it enhances our cognitive abilities and keeps our passion for learning alive. I also share an incredible study highlighting the impact on our cognitive wellbeing from continuing to learn new skills as we age.Takeaways:

Embracing the beginner's mindset is essential for continuous growth in our professional lives.
Experiencing discomfort when learning new skills can lead to significant personal and professional development.
Our ego often hinders us from acknowledging our need to learn and grow, especially as experts.
Humility in accepting feedback and criticism is crucial for maintaining relevance in our careers.

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Transcript

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And the whole hypothesis of this study was that cognitive

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decline is not necessarily a given and it is not

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necessarily just tied to biological age. So if you think

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about what we do with kids. We send them to

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school and they learn bloody five or six subjects at

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a time, all at once. They have lots of support,

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they're not shame for mistakes. They're expected to be beginners.

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And what do you know, the little brains grow and

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they learn all these new skills. Then we get to

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being an adult and we stop all that we might

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learn for our profession, we might do the occasional professional development,

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but then we stop being a beginner. And so they

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replicated those conditions in these older people, and what do

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you know, they learned all these skills. Their cognitive decline

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was reversed. You know, when you hear people say, oh, well,

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if I do Sodoku every day, will that keep my

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brain sharp? If I do crossword puzzles every day? Will

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that keep my brain sharp? And what she said, this researcher,

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she said, if you gave your child a crosswad puzzle

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every day and expected that to be sufficient for them

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to keep their brain sharp, do you think that would

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be enough. I think if you gave you k to

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Sodoku every day and said, there you go, do the

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Sodoku and let's just hope and pray that your brain

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growth probably not right. This is Crappy to Happy and

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I am your host, cas Done. I'm a clinical and

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coaching psychologist. I'm mindfulness meditation teacher and of course author

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of the Crappy to Happy books. In this show, I

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bring you conversations with interesting, inspiring, intelligent people who are

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experts in their field and who have something of value

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to share that will help you feel less crappy and

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more happy. Hello and welcome back to Crappy to Happy.

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Such a pleasure to have you here today. I want

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to talk with you about something that I myself have

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been experiencing and I thought it might be relevant and

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helpful for you as well. And that is is why

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it is so difficult, but also why it is so

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essential to be a beginner, even as an adult. And

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specifically I want to talk about not just why it's

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important to be a beginner and learn whole new skills

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that you don't currently possess, but why it's important to

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keep that beginner's mindset and to continue to learn and

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go back to being a non expert, even when you're

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already an expert. So even in those areas of those fields,

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like in your profession, in your job, where you have

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loads of experience and training and accreditations and qualifications, and

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you've been doing things for a long time, and why

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it is so necessary and important to give yourself the

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opportunity to go back to being a beginner and learn

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new skills, but possibly even unlearn some old ones. So

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for context, let me tell you what's been going on.

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I am obviously a registered psychologist in Australia, and I

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have been doing that work for a long time. Even

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before I registered as a clinical psychologist, I had a

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master's in coaching psychology and I first trained as a

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life coach well over twenty years ago, and I did

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that work for a while. So combined between my coaching

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work and my therapy work, I've got many, many, one

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hundreds and thousands of hours of experience. I moved to

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the UK in twenty twenty two and I'm not registered

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as a psychologist in this country, and the process for

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getting registered, you know, getting qualifications recognized, just seems like

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arduous and expensive and I'm not really up for that.

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And so while I'm here in the UK, I'm just

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practicing as a coach, and by all means, get in

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touch with me if you're interested in some coaching, because

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I do have some spaces available at the moment. Being

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a registered psychologist means that I have to do professional

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development every year, and so what I decided was that

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I might look to get my ICF accreditation. Now, if

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you don't know what that is, ICfC International Coaching Federation,

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and it was set up to be like an association

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that sets the guidelines about proper standards of practice and

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a way to try to bring some regulation into a

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very unregulated industry. Now, I have never bothered to get

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ICF for creditation because why would I. Because I'm a

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registered psychologist, have a master's in coaching psychology. I've got

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my own whole set of professional standards and ethical codes

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of conduct that I need to a year two. So

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getting an ICF accreditation was really not a priority for me.

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But I thought, oh, well, I'm in the UK and

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I need to get some professional development hours up and

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I can't work as a psychologist here. I thought, want

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to put my hours towards getting my ICF accreditation. It's

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internationally recognized, and maybe that would stand me in good

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stead if I continued to do coaching work. So I decided,

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first of all, to enroll in a coaching certification course. Obviously,

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I mean, there was a lot of stuff in the

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course that I already knew, but there were some approaches

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and some coaching processes and ideas and skills that I

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hadn't necessarily used in my own practice. So I spent

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last year doing this course and that was great. It

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served its purpose for me to get the certification that

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I need to apply for my ICF accreditation, and it

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also taught me some new coaching approaches and skills that

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I hadn't used before. And I'm not going to lie.

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Sometimes that was really uncomfortable. I mean, there was a

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whole mix of people in this program. There were people who,

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like me, have therapy backgrounds, who already have been working

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as coaches, and they were complete beginners. So it was

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really interesting to me to observe my own mindset in

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that environment and how much I would sometimes default to

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I know this already, or I know better than this,

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or I think actually you're wrong about that. I mean,

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there's a bit of just the fact that I do

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have that experience, but there's a bit of ego involved

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in that. And when you have been doing something for

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a long time and you have a whole sense of

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identity and your self concept is wrapped up in your

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professional role and experience and expertise, etc. It is uncomfortable

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to go back to being a beginner and learn new

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things from scratch, even in a very safe, supportive environment.

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And it's also really interesting how much we do kind

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of attach ourselves. Our ego gets kind of attached to

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knowing better or being an expert, or thinking or wanting

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to feel like we know better and that we have

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nothing to learn. Not that I ever felt like I

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had nothing to learn, don't get me wrong at all.

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I just want to point out or just want to

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share that was curious to me that I did notice

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that coming up for myself, and it was just something

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that I had to really work on myself. Now fast forward,

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the next step in the ICF accreditation process is that

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you have to go through mental coaching. So this is

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where you have to actually coach somebody recorded on video

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and send it off to a mental coach who has many, many,

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many hours of coaching experience to assess your performance. Now,

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this is like stuff that we used to do at UNI.

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This is really going back to being a student again.

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And when you go back to being a student again

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and being professionally evaluated by a peer in an area

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where you feel like you already have experience in skills

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and expertise, it is so uncomfortable. And what I have

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learned from this process is that Jesus, I have really

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got a lot of bad habits, Like I have developed

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a whole lot of bad habits and things that I

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need to unlearn and things that I can definitely do

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better now. The other thing about this mentor coaching is

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that the ICF has a particular has particular competencies that

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they're looking for. So there's particular style of coaching and

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particular things that you would do in a session that's

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being assessed, which might not be exactly what I would

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actually genuinely do in a session with a client. Every

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coach has their own particular set of skills, their own approach,

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their own style of coaching. You know, people do a

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lot of somatic work. People do a lot of mindset work,

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some emotional processing work, different kinds of techniques that people bring,

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and so with that mental coaching, it's not like you

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can necessarily have the space to bring all of that.

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My point is that it would be easy for me

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to say, oh, things that I got pulled up on

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that don't tick the ICF boxes, well, doesn't really matter

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because we all have our own style, when the actual

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fact is like, there was some stuff that was wrong

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with what I did do, and there's a whole lot

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of room for improvement. So there's just got me thinking.

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That's a lot of backstory just to give you context

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about why it is so difficult for us to be

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beginners and to go back to being students again in

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our area of expertise. I'm not talking about going and

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learning the piano, or going a learning the Spanish, or

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going a learning the saxophone when you're an accountant and

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doing something completely different. I'm talking about, even in the area,

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especially in the area where you already consider yourself to

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be the expert, why it is so important to put

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yourself in situations where you become a learner again and

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you become a beginner again. So first up, let's talk

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about why that's so hard. I've already said there's so

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much ego involved in this. There is so much identity

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wrapped up in being the professional, being the expert, having skills,

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having experience, been doing this forever, been doing it for

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twenty years, blah blah blah, and having that challenged or

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feeling like maybe you're not as good or maybe you're

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not as expert as what you're telling yourself and what

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other people see you as. I think that's a big

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part of it, too, is uncomfortable. That feels really uncomfortable.

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We don't like that. The other thing is that we

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have blind spots, like we have been doing the same

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thing for so long that we don't even know what

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we are missing or what we're not doing to the

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standard that we would have done when we were beginners.

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This is the thing, right, Like there's research that shows

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that even doctors learning particular spinal surgeries, they don't make

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mistakes on the first go or the second go, to

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make them on the fifteenth go, And pilots tend to

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make the most mistakes after like eight hundred hours of flying.

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Not in the beginning. We're so vigilant, we're so honored

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when we are just learning, and then over time we

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get lazy, we get complacent, and we start falling into

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these bad habits. Once we form those bad habits, then

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they can be really hard to break. And that's what

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I'm kind of finding now. What I'm needing to do

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now is to unlearn some bad habits and actually go

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back and really train myself to go back to being

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a beginner again. The other reason that's uncomfortable is because

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people pay me as an expert, like people pay me

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for my skills and they pay me for my experience.

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So you have an expectation, and you perceive that other

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people have an expectation that you're going to show up

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as a professional. You're not going to show up as

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a beginner, like with your textbook and with your in

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practice mode, with your training wheels on learning something new.

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And our brains are just wired to do what's familiar

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and to stick with what's familiar. It's what feels safe,

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even if it's not in the interest of our growth,

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it is what feels safe, so our brains will default

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back to doing what's familiar. I don't know about you, like,

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how many times have you gone and learned a new

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process or a new skill, even in your profession, and

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it's been really interesting and it's really great. You've done

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a training course, you've done a professional development course, and

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then when you actually get back on the job, you

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just default back to the old way of doing things.

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I'm pretty sure that I could pull up some stats

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about that. I'm pretty sure that is quite common. In fact,

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I remember years ago somebody telling me that they had

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done some research and like eight percent of what is

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learned on those professional development courses that people go on

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they actually retain and apply in the workplace. Eight percent.

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That was several years ago, so I don't know if

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the number has changed since then, but I think we

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all have had that experience where we have learned something,

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particularly a skill or a new way of doing something,

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but then it's too easy to default back to the

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old way of doing it, so we don't actually apply it.

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Therefore that doesn't stick. We might as well have not bothered.

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And to do that, applying and learning and rewiring your

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brain and creating new default patterns and behaviors, it takes time.

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It takes really significant time and effort and energy, And

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who's got bloody the energy and the time for it.

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We are at a stage in life where we feel

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like we're done with that. I don't wonder if that anymore.

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I just want to do it the way that I've

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been doing it. So what I want to talk to

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you about today is not just like why so hard?

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But why is it so important? And why do I

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think that we should all be pushing ourselves and challenging

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ourselves in this way? So Number one, a little bit

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of humility. I think a little bit of humility goes

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a long way. It's humbling to have to present yourself

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your skills and you to record yourself doing something and

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have somebody else assess you on that and note all

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of the areas for improvement. It doesn't feel pleasant. But

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in that humility and in that willingness to take on

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that feedback and criticism, that there is so much opportunity

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for your own growth. And you know, when we get

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very attached to our identity and our self concept as

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an expert and as having all of this skills and

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experience and that's what's on our website and our CV

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and all of the rest of it, there's a lot

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of ego wrapped up in that. Like I said before,

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and there can be potentially a bit of arrogance about

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that too, a bit of I don't need to learn

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anything new. It can cause us to be a little

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bit more concerned about protecting our self image than learning

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and growing actually being the best at what we want

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to do. And if we're people who pride ourselves on

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our expertise and our skills and knowledge, then we do

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want to be the best that we can be. And therefore,

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paradoxically it is necessary for us to maintain that kind

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of status as the expert and as being very highly

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experienced and credentialed and very good at what we do.

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It requires us to actually drop all of that and

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be willing to just have that humility and be a beginner. Now,

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there's some really interesting benefits to having intellectual humility and

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being humble in the workplace. In particular, you are more

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open to other people's opinions and ideas, much more open

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to hearing about different perspectives, rather than needing to defend

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your own approach or your own view or your own

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way of doing things. When there's a lot of ego

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wrapped up in this is how I do it, and

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this is how we've vowys done that, and I don't

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need to be told because I have always done this.

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We can feel threatened by feedback or criticism or alternative approaches.

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When we are not threatened by that there is so

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much more to learn, we're more willing to collaborate. Therefore,

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it fosters stronger relationships in the workplace, collaborations that are

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in everybody's best interests versus being competitive and a bit

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territorial and a bit defensive because we think that we

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know it all. We just become more curious. We just

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become much more open to new ideas and approaches. The

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other reason this is so important is that we are

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wired for struggle. We are wired to grow through struggle.

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And if we are not putting ourselves out of our

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comfort zone, if we are continuing to do things the

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way that we have always done them and just relying

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on our reputation as being an expert or on our

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years of experience and having done this for so long,

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then we're not putting ourselves in a situation to be uncomfortable.

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And it's only from the discomfort that we actually really

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truly grow and elevate. And if we're not growing, we're stagnating.

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We're decaying again. It's not in anybody's best interests now.

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I personally have a view that I think some people

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in intellectual professions and some people you know in Chris

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for example, like mine, I think we keep that curiosity

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alive and we keep that intellectual stimulation alive by reading

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a lot, by learning a lot. We can learn a

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lot of information. I can do it all day and

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all night. I would read all of the interesting things

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about psychological theories and duels and concepts, etc. That's fine.

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It keeps us feeling inspired, and it keeps us feeling interested,

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and it keeps us feeling like we're learning, which we are.

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But unless that is translating, like I said, into actually

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doing something different into the next time you go into

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a meeting, a session, something with a client, something that

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you do normally in the course of your work and

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doing something different, something's lost there. I think sometimes intellectually

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we kid ourselves. We avoid the stagnation and we avoid

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the complacency and the laziness by learning with our brain

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but not actually applying in an actual, real life do

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something different scenario. And it's the doing something different in

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real time that is what can feel really uncomfortable. The

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thing about the stagnation and the relying on our reputation

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and relying on what we've always known, is that we

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also can fall into this fixed mindset. You probably know

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a fixed mindset. Is this mindset or a belief, whether

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it's conscious or unconscious, that we each have a certain

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set of skills or talents or knowledge or intelligence that

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is fixed, like there's some stuff that we know and

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we're good at, and there's some stuff that we're not

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that's kind of out of our remit And when you

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have this fixed mindset, your whole sense of yourself as

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an intelligent, capable person is attached to your knowledge and

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your experience and your skills and your expertise. And if

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that gets threatened, if that gets challenged criticized, that threatens

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your whole sense of yourself as a competent, skilled, capable,

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expert person. So, therefore, when there is this fixed mindset,

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there is this tendency to get very defensive and protective

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of doing things the way that you've always done, or

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continuing to need to prove yourself over and over within

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this narrow confines of what you think is what you

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do and what you do well. With a fixed mindset,

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criticism or feedback or failure or something not going well

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for you feels like like a threat to your sense

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of yourself as a competent person, whereas a growth mindset,

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of course, is about well, we're all capable of learning

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and growing in any area, and therefore feedback is great.

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Feedback helps me to know what I can do to

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improve and be better. And people with a growth mindset

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will put themselves in situations where they will get hard

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feedback or put themselves in situations where it is uncomfortable,

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because they thrive on that. But it's a very different mindset. Obviously,

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with neuroplasticity, then we're growing new neurons all the time.

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But again it's the neuroplasticity, or it's our neural pathways

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that make it so difficult to unlearn things that we've

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always done because those neural pathways are so wired that

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it's hard, and that's why we tend to avoid learning

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and doing things differently. We've got some really really solid

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neural pathways that have been developed, often through years of

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doing things a certain way, and so unlearning or doing

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something new and different feels really awkward and uncomfortable can

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be done. And when we do, then obviously there's all

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of this potential to grow and to really keep our

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brain healthy. And it's not just about keeping our brain healthy,

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it is about staying on our game and staying inspired

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and curious and staying relevant as we get older. Might

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I just add staying relevant is pretty important the older

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you get. So if you knowing yourself, I don't know

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how much of this is resonating with you or what

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you do for work, but if you knowing yourself that

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there's areas where you feel like you've been doing this

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for so long, this is just the way you do it,

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and other people get different ideas are they bring in

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some new system or whatever it is, and you are

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resistant to that and you are a little bit getting

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a little bit set in your ways. We can all

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fall into that trap. Then I just would really encourage

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you to think about the benefit of putting yourself in

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situations where you are having to be stretched, where you

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were having to learn a new skill, a new way

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of doing things, even if you have been doing it

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a particular way for a really long time, and really

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think about the benefits of that. Even if you don't

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buy into that you'll get a better outcome in terms

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of what you do think about it, in terms of

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your own emotional psychological growth, in terms of your own

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willingness to be challenged, to be uncomfortable, to grow, to

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be humble, to just stay curious, and all the positive

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benefits in your brain, in your brain, you know, and

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in your skill development. But I really think, honestly, the

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more I talk about this, I really think that that humility,

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like that psychological adaptability and flexibility is so key here.

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And look, can I just say, I think we have

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all had the experience I know I have of being

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a young person in a workplace and being fresh and

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excited and inspired and like really learning like everything's new,

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and looking at people who have been in the workplace

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or in their role for years and the cynicism and

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the attitude of this is the way we've always done it,

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and they've been very closed off to new ideas. You know,

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I can think of I can think of two or

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three in my mind right now, and maybe you can too.

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And nobody wants to be that person. You don't want

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to be that. We don't want to be that person.

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And it's easy. I think the older that we get

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