The external validation is such an unstable indicator to rely on especially for pushing forward the progress especially when it involves an organic learning process the learner are unsure of. The confusion, silence, hesitation, and doubt of the audience don’t point toward the quality of the work we are conducting, same applies to the compliments, celebration, and applaud which most of time is just an polite gestures.
What’s really important here is those ‘Aha’, ‘validation’ and ‘pleasant’ moments for the learner themselves to believe in the value of each step in their learning journey. By the end, it is the learner themselves who are going to address any questions upcoming which are thirsty for the richness in the experience and insights of the learners.
So do not just set up a strict goal to reach a sort of external validation (title, a winner in a finite game, the rank of the organisation and etc, reputation), a step beyond to the infinite goal of carrying on with a flexible mindset is more effective sometimes. To experience someone/some jobs personally is more important than the CV of the person and the reputation of the institution as spread/recommended by others…
P.s: my favourite lifestyle or workstyle is to have lots of time and space freedom while the outcome is ambitious but the journey is not regulated by anyone who so called have more experience and expertise… e.g. my favourite status in the workplace is to finish all kinds of meeting (update and re-state the goal) with all kinds of people (supervisor, manager, experts, collaborator, and etc….), then I can start my week designing the work structure , workload, work content, way of working interesting to me. This will be my requirements and wish lists when it comes to my next-job hunting (a financial plan for the next few years is needed to support me so no need to rush into the next job for survival!). By the end, my ultimate lifegoal is to learn and research things I am interested at with time, space and finance autonomy, so anything can contribute to this could be interesting to take consider of while anything hinders can be discarded at some points (the art of when to let it go, when to hold on… there must be some books about it!!)
Being realistic is to be adaptive?
RoofGazers 