Pt.2. Finish the PhotoReading course you started

Begin from where you left off. That simple and that’s it.

This is part two following on from the article why you lost your motivation to finish the PhotoReading course. Part one can be found here

If you already get this it then you don’t need to read anymore. If you disagree read or cannot understand how that could work. Read on. I’ll explain why and how this will get you to finishing the PhotoReading course.

When climbing a long set of stairs and needing to stop and rest you don’t race back down to the bottom and start over. You keep going from where you stopped. So why start self study courses over?

There is no need to start over from the beginning. That’s the beauty of home study courses like the PhotoReading course. It doesn’t have a specific period like classroom learning. If you enrol for a course and don’t show up you are doomed to start over and repeat the part of the course you already sat through. The reason for that is more logistic than necessity. It makes sense for the instructors standing at the front of the class to have their students there right from the beginning.

With a self study course like PhotoReading it doesn’t matter how long it takes you to do the course. Ultimately it’s up to you anyway. The instructor is there when you are. So why go on a guilt trip for not finishing it within a defined time? One that you didn’t specifically set consciously or logically. Even if you did, the reason you didn’t finish it was because there were other priorities. And had you really known what was in the course you might have planned differently.

What if I forgot what I learned.

Keep going from where you stopped, anyway. Don’t worry if you don’t remember it all, most courses will remind you with each CD. The PhotoReading course is different enough without punishing yourself by repeatedly starting over. And you learn nothing new each time you start at the beginning. The reason you stopped might be there was something you didn’t understand about the PhotoReading process. You know you are more likely to learn the answer in the next CD than the previous one? That’s because the course is designed as a step by step process.

And you have the manual to refresh your memory. Look back over the notes when you’ve listened to the next CD. It will come back to you. I know that PhotoReading is probably one of the most difficult home study courses and it works for that so it will work for other courses too.

But Alex what if I don’t get it because I did forget what I learned in the first 2 or 3 CDs?

Trust that you remember enough to understand the next lesson. Even if it seems difficult to understand the next lesson I challenge you to keep going. With PhotoReading it’s quite possible that the next lesson seems difficult. That’s okay.

Remember you can listen to them again after finishing the course. That’s the beauty of owning a course like the PhotoReading home study course. It’s yours to listen to and work with as often as you want. Once you finish home study courses like the PhotoReading course you can listen to them again and at random. Select the lesson you think you didn’t get from the index.

Make it a goal to finish the course once through. Learn it badly if you must. You will still learn more than when you start over again.

What if you finish the course and you “get it” without having to start over? That means in actual time you finished the course with one listening.

My advise is, Don’t start again. Start from where you left off. Just finish the course by listening to the next lesson that you haven’t worked with.

The benefits of keeping going from where you left off. Thoughts that motivate

• There is a sense of satisfaction with finishing a course
• You’ve build on what you’ve already learned and make progress.
• It all becomes much more workable. Both your ability to progress through the course and your knowledge and ability to use the techniques taught in the course. (Get it?)
• You permission to work with any part of the course again and it’s much easier to do that when you’ve done it once.
• You don’t have to do all the exercises again. For the PhotoReading home study course it’s recommended that you do all the exercises on the first listening. That’s another reason why you won’t be motivated if you intend to start the course again from the beginning just because you haven’t finished it.
• You learn to trust your mind more. I’m not referring PhotoReading here. Although that is true of PhotoReading, you do discover the awesome skills of your mind. What I mean is you realise how much you know and remember already.

Classroom logistics don’t apply to home study courses. There is no rule that says if you didn’t do the next lesson in this course within 4 weeks you have to start over because you failed the course. You are your taskmaster and you made up that rule. There is no need for the guilt. I’m pointing out that if you want to be motivated that’s one invisible rule you can dump.

As I said in the beginning this advise is for any self study course and especially for the PhotoReading self study course.

You bought the course for your own self improvement goal so allow yourself to finish it. And build on your greatest asset, usable knowledge. So if you’re learning PhotoReading or doing any self study course without certification deadline and stalled. Set about to finish the course by starting from where you left off.

© Alex K Viefhaus