I recently picked up tutoring Algebra outside of work. I really enjoy tutoring. It’s something my Mom did for me to get my math skills up.
During one of my tutoring sessions, I had to show a student how to solve algebraic equations. If you don’t remember those, it’s stuff along the lines of “solve for x” when they give you an equation like “5x+3=8”.
Well the student was really struggling with the big algebraic equations – it was stuff like “5x + 3 = -4x + 12”. When I first asked him to solve it, he said “That’s impossible. I can’t do that”. Personally, I knew he could because I taught him the same stuff last week. Instead of forcing him to try it, I broke down the equation into a simpler form for him to solve.
Once he solved the simpler equation consistently, I gradually increased the difficulty of the equation until he was able to solve the original equation I first gave him. When he solved it, he felt so ecstatic.
At the end of the session, he was telling me that trying that first equation was like climbing this super high step that he couldn’t do; solving the simpler equations was like climbing up a small ladder. And the more equations he solved, the higher he got on the ladder until he reached that initial first step that he thought was impossible to reach.
As soon as he said that, I chuckled because I knew what he was talking about. In a way, I felt like he was teaching me how to see what it means to break down your goals step by step. And apparently, there’s a term for this! It’s called the protégé effect.
What is the protégé effect?
I would describe it as the feeling you get when you understand a certain topic better after teaching it to somebody else. It’s almost like playing a reverse uno card on yourself: you teach others, but then you end up teaching yourself at the same time.
I also like the way effectiviology described it here (it’s a bit more elegant but also to the same point):
The protégé effect is a psychological phenomenon where teaching, pretending to teach, or preparing to teach information to others helps a person learn that information – Effectiviology.com
Although I was the one breaking down the math equation step by step, the student was showing me that how I was breaking it down was key to him being able to solve the bigger complex equation.
How to take things step by step
Each step you take has to be meaningful in respect to the bigger goal. There has to be purpose with the small steps. If your steps don’t carry your forward, then you aren’t moving toward your goal. Denzel said something similar – “Don’t confuse movement with progress”.
How small of a step though?
Man I wish there was a straight answer, but all I can say is it depends on you. Everybody’s got their own definition of small. Something that has helped me was doing this (I heard this from a podcast):
Ask yourself this – on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is the least likely and 10 is like the most likely, how likely are you able to do what you want? If you answer anything less than a 7, break down your goal into smaller pieces and ask yourself the same question. Once you feel like you can give an answer greater than 7, that’s where you need to start.
You are building up confidence in yourself when you do these little steps. At first, you may feel a little embarrassed that you are doing such small steps, but eventually you forget about it.
When I was picking up reading books a couple years ago, I was reading one paragraph a night. I admit – there were times where I was like…”come on Jerry. You can read more than that.” But I kept to the small reading sessions. Over time, I saw how many pages I had finished reading. I felt good.
Some closing thoughts
As I was sitting in my car after the tutoring session, I couldn’t help but laugh to myself. The student was literally telling me…almost like he was talking to me…like “you’re trying to do too much at once” or like “you can’t climb this big of a step”. It was like he was reminding me to start small and keep at the small steps until you are ready to make a larger step.
