Seriously, Taffie?

Seriously… Did Training Make Me Dumber?

So, I spent this past week in training.

Not a little training.

Four days. Eight hours a day.

That’s 32 HOURS of learning.

Before training started, I had to complete an assignment to see where I was starting from.

And guess what?

I did pretty well. 😎

Naturally, I thought, Okay, great! Give me four days of training and I’ll be unstoppable.

Oh, sweet innocent Taffie.

The training itself was actually great. Our instructor knew her stuff, explained things well, and had such a fun personality that she somehow managed to make four 8-hour days of training enjoyable.

I listened.

I participated.

I took in new information.

We talked about leadership, communication, procedures, different situations, and what it really means to learn to lead.

I was learning things I can actually use.

So when it came time for the assignment AFTER training, there was really only one logical outcome.

I was going to CRUSH it.

Right?

……

😂😂😂

No.

I passed.

Let’s make that very clear.

I PASSED.

But by a margin so small I’m pretty sure my score crossed the finish line, collapsed, and required medical attention.

And that’s when the questions started.

How did I do better before somebody spent 32 hours teaching me how to do it?!

Was it information overload?

Was I overthinking every question because now I knew more?

Was I remembering the exceptions instead of the rule?

Did my brain reach maximum capacity somewhere around hour 27 and start quietly deleting files?

Or did Taffie spend four days nodding intelligently while retaining approximately six minutes of useful information?

Seriously, Taffie? 😂

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized something.

Maybe learning—especially learning to lead—isn’t always going to show up immediately as a better score on an assignment.

Before training, I answered with what I already knew.

After training?

Now I had more to think about.

More perspectives.

More possibilities.

More “Well, what about this?”

More “Wait… didn’t we talk about an exception to that?”

And, because we’re talking about me, probably a healthy dose of:

“WAIT. DON’T CLICK IT YET. LET’S OVERTHINK THIS FOR ANOTHER SIX MINUTES.”

😂

Maybe sometimes learning more temporarily makes you feel like you know less.

And maybe becoming a better leader isn’t about walking out of a training class suddenly knowing everything.

It’s about taking what you learned, using it, making mistakes, asking questions, gaining confidence and getting better as you go.

So no, I didn’t walk away with the score I expected.

But I walked away with new information, new ways of thinking and some things I can actually put into practice.

And most importantly…

I PASSED.

A pass is a pass, people. 😂

We’re not going to discuss margins.

We’re not going to request a recount.

We’re going to take our little passing score, hold our head high and continue learning to lead.

Because apparently I’m still a work in progress.

Just a slightly more educated, significantly more confused work in progress. 😂❤️

Seriously, Taffie?

Life happens. Laugh anyway. ❤️