TED Talk Tuesday #192 – How to get better at things you care about

Watching TED Talks is a popular pastime at CN&CO. We visit TED.com regularly to clear our heads, have a laugh or get inspired. TED Talks open our minds, spark new ways of thinking and can lead to some very interesting conversations. Each week we pick a favourite and publish it on a Tuesday (more often than not), because we like how “TED Talk Tuesday” sounds. It’s also a way that the CN&CO team play their part on spreading ideas and helping to make the world a better place. This week’s talk is posted by Penny. Here’s why she chose it:

I have always enjoyed learning, whether it be about bridge (a game I love) or about cooking (a pastime that I also love). I am not shy to ask for tips and ideas on either of these pursuits. I am also fond of driving improvement in relationships – even those that seem to be perfect! – and life in general.

This TED Talk speaks about the need to spend time in the “learning zone” as well as in the “performance zone”.

“The learning zone is when our goal is to improve,” says speaker Eduardo Briceño. “Then we do activities designed for improvement, concentrating on what we haven’t mastered yet, which means we have to expect to make mistakes, knowing that we will learn from them. 

“That is very different from what we do when we’re in our performance zone, which is when our goal is to do something as best as we can, to execute. Then we concentrate on what we have already mastered and we try to minimize mistakes.” 

I love the last sentence of the talk, which is very inspirational:

“And what if we got clear… about when we seek to learn and when we seek to perform, so that our efforts can become more consequential, our improvement never-ending and our best even better?”

Enjoy the talk.