Podcast Episode
Topic:
Better Practice

Struggling on Purpose

HostTrevor Ragan
28min

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Struggling on Purpose
What can a college football program, a six year old, an auditing company, a HS basketball player, and Uber driving educator teach us about learning?

They show us that the only way we can grow is if we’re willing to step out of our comfort zone and struggle a bit.

Key Points

We are always going to be bad first
This is one of the most simple, yet underrated rules of learning. In order to grow we have to be willing to sit through the valley of bad.

Struggle is the price of admission we pay in order to grow
Whether we’re a beginner or expert we have to expand our comfort zone and struggle in order to grow.

Jungle tigering is a choice
Every day we’re presented jungle tiger moments: problems, challenges, obstacles, and change. When it comes to learning we get to choose what to do with these moments. We can choose to experience them and learn from them (jungle tiger) or we can choose to hide from them and avoid them (zoo tiger). Jungle tigering will always lead to more struggle, but it also leads to more growth

With a little creativity we can all jungle tiger more
In order to grow we need to find creative ways to expand our comfort zone, get better reps, and feedback.

Quick Links
The Skateboarding Video
Yale Comfort Zone Research
Alex’s Videos
Learning Like a Jungle Tiger TEDx Talk

Keep
listening.

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Trevor Ragan
About the host

Trevor Ragan.

I run The Learner Lab. I dig into the research on how we learn and turn it into essays, video essays, and podcast episodes you can actually use. The whole point: help you get better at getting better.

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