Will Rogers (if you’re too young to know who he was, look him up!) once remarked that there are three kinds of men: The ones who learn by reading, the few who learn by observation, and the rest who have to pee on the electric fence to find out for themselves.

Well, being female, I never peed on the electric fence, but I will admit to touching the wire more than a few times. Thing was, I’d READ that if you touched the wire palm-down, your fingers would jerk and involuntarily curl around it and you wouldn’t be able to let go, so I always made sure I touched it with the back of my hand.

Truth be told, I’d also OBSERVED my country cousins touching the fence, and all of them survived, so I figured it was safe enough for a city gal to prove her “courage” with the back of her hand.

So what kind of a learner are you? Do you learn best by reading how it’s done, by watching it being done, or by jumping in and trying it yourself? Most of us, like in my personal example above, use a combination of the three modalities.

The trick is to “look before you leap,” and think carefully about the possible results or consequences before doing something your cousins dare you to do. Otherwise, you’re likely to be standing there, looking foolish and totally humiliated, a lot like the kid on the playground with his tongue stuck to the frozen metal pole.

This one I learned by observation alone!