Learning a new skill (including TENEX) is also an instance of problem-solving that can be improved upon using the principles of TENEX.

 

You can try to learn a skill through "I". Which means making a lot of effort to understand all the concepts and "try" to bring them into practise. "Trying" to put a new skill to practice is a struggle against your innate nature and unless you take a very disciplined approach (aaaahhhh), it is sure to run into rough waters.

 

 Imagine, you learnt a 12-point program in a course, and everytime you embarked on a problem-solving or innovation session, you have to think hard to figure out which of these principles are best suited here. Most of the time, consciously trying to practise a new skill, especially a new skill of thinking is dull, boring, stressful and confronting.

 

In majority of the cases, an individual would prefer to be content with the older ways of working, rather than go through a dull ordeal of disciplined practice before they start seeing results.

 

The TENEX way of learning is to approach learning through the "AIM". As anywhere else, the purpose of "I" remains awareness and perception, setting goals and directions. You learn the lessons or the newsletters, understand the concepts, assimilate the analogies and examples, and make a note of all your takeways from that lesson. You write them down in a (ever-growing) list and read the list very frequently, preferably several times a day. Preferably every time you start on something critical. At least twice a day. Or if time is so much of a constraint, at least once a day. But certainly not zero times a month. (In TENEX, any non-zero frequency is acceptable and fruit-bearing in due course of time. WHAT IS TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE IS ZERO !!!).

 

These principles start settling in the "AIM". One day, in one of your problem-solving endeavours, you use one of those principles on your own - without realizing it and then in retrospect, you exclaim  - voila, it works !!! Or else, you are stuck with a problem, not going anywhere, not knowing what else to do. And suddenly you say to yourself - why am I trying to solve the entire problem in one shot ? Can't I look forward to just moving the process forward ? Can't I just give one more idea ? Can't I come up with just one more wrong idea ? And then you realize, you have got it !!!

 

Once you get a few minor successes, you start believing in TENEX. You start believing in your own "AIM" more and more. And the momentum grows exponentially, before it has become a second nature. Without any effort, without any struggle, without any frown on the forehead !!! Just a few minutes of day of being with the lessons.

 

It is like a heavy rainfall in a rocky terrain. The rain water disappears through the cracks and crevices and very soon you see no water around. You think that the water is lost. But this water remains underground, moving through the surfaces and once it finds a weak point, it gushes out of it like a waterfall.

 

Be that rocky terrain. Just allow the TENEX concepts to seep through. Very soon, the concepts themselves will find suitable outlets and start expressing themselves in everthing you do.

 

The document MyTENEX.doc is a valuable tool that will help you assimilate all these concepts. If you havent already started it, start using it now. Write down any insight you get about problem-solving or innovation - either from TENEX or elsewhere or your own, and make sure you read those concepts at least once a day. Preferably several times a day.

 

Very soon you will find yourself using those concepts in various areas, all by itself. It is the "AIM" in action - the TENEX way.