Learning zone

Small opportunities are often the beginning of great endeavors.

-Demosthenes

Demosthenes was one of the best speakers of ancient Greece. He spoke very well, but he never stopped striving to do even better. He was aware of the mistakes he made and worked on them. He noticed, for example, that he raised his shoulders when speaking, which made him look frightened. To get rid of this habit, he practiced with a sword hanging from the ceiling, which would pierce into his skin every time he raised his shoulders excessively. Because the Greek agoras were sometimes lively, he would shout over the waves, working on the volume of his voice.

Eduardo Briceño gave the example of Demosthenes during a 2016 TED talk when referring to the division between performance zone and learning zone. In performance zone we use our skills, act, try to minimize mistakes and achieve the best results. Learning zone is where we focus primarily on improvement. We analyze what we don't know, we experiment, we often make mistakes so we can learn from them and get better. The problem is, according to Eduardo Briceño, that we spend over 90% of our time in the performance zone. Why? Maybe because we often rest on our laurels?

Carol Dweck, professor of psychology at Stanford University, divides people into two categories in terms of their mentality: fixed mindset and growth mindset. People with a fixed mindset believe that intelligence, talent or ability are innate and remain constant no matter what we do. Those with a growth mindset, on the other hand, think that these qualities are just a starting point, and that through hard work and development we can achieve much more. The most robust plants grow under the most difficult conditions. The growth mindset is not about looking for applause in the environment, but rather the desire to improve our skills, to set the bar higher every day, and this in the long run gives great satisfaction of themselves.