Ënjoy the pain of learning

                 “Learning is not child’s play; we cannot learn without pain.” Aristotle

We have come to believe that easy and fast equals to better. And that the best teachers are those who make learning unchallenging. We’d rather take a pill than exercise our brain.

As human beings, we run away from pain and suffering. This mechanism is ingrained in our brains. But if we become conscious of this pattern and deliberately do the things that we fear, we will embark on a path of lasting greatness.

To Grow in Life, Be Willing to Suffer

“It’s so easy to be great nowadays, because everyone else is weak. If you have ANY mental toughness  if you have any fraction of self-discipline; The ability to not want to do it, but still do it; If you can get through to doing things that you hate to do: on the other side is Greatness ” – David Goggins 

Suffering is the only way you can grow. When you’re trying to run a marathon, you have to build calluses on your feet. And when you’re trying to get ahead in life, you have to build calluses in your brain.

             A "painful" learning experience will make you smarter.

If things become too easy, they lose value

When learning is easy, we become over-confident. Similar studies have shown that when students believe they “got it in the bag,” they actually don’t know the material as well as they think.

“No pain, no gain is the rule when it comes to gaining happiness from increasing competence at something,” said professor Ryan Howell, “People often give up their goals because they are stressful, but we found that there’s a benefit from learning to do something well.”

When you start something new — at work, school, or the gym — you experience decreased happiness in the moment and lower levels of enjoyment. You suffer. But later, when you look back, you feel happy and satisfied with what you’ve accomplished. 

              “Learning never exhausts the mind.” ― Leonardo da Vinci

Admit Your Weaknesses

“For me to fix this, I gotta read my book. Okay, I’m afraid of my shadow. How can I overcome that? – Go in the military. Get your ass kicked. Do things you hate to do. Be uncomfortable every day of your life.” – David Goggins Quotes

We have a tendency to run away from the truth. When things are not working, it is easy to blame this or that. 
In order to emerge stronger on the other side, we need to accept our faults.

Goggins said, he told himself he was dumb and needed to educate himself, as painful as it may sound. We need to confront our darker truths in order to harness the power they have over us.

If You Choose to Do Something, Attack It

If you ever set out to do something, invest hundred percent of your energy in it. Don’t take a half-assed approach. You’re going to do it anyway, so you might as well go hard. Because in the end, it’s all about how you’ll be remembered. 

How to Deal with the Pain

Don’t try to learn everything overnight. You are not competing against anyone except yourself. There’s no reward for who reads more books per week. Are you aiming to break a record or to discover new thoughts? Spreading out learning allows links between neurons to strengthen.

             Albert Einstein said: “Learning is experience. Everything else is just information.

Train Your Brain

Pain is an indicator of learning. Also, it helps you identify the areas that you need to strengthen. Pain is a clear signal that you are actually doing something new. Neurons that are weak, unused, or that don’t fit the job are pruned. Neurons that are exercised get stronger and develop more connections.Focus on long-term goals.

            The brain needs to be stretched beyond its comfort zone to stay fit.

Professor Kurt Fischer said: “The brain is remarkably plastic. Even in middle or old age, it’s still adapting very actively to its environment.”
Your brain benefits when you tackle something you don’t know.

Don’t avoid the pain. The brain never stops changing and adjusting. The challenge of learning keeps it young and active.

It has nothing to do with your smarts; it’s a way of living. A learning mind is about embracing the joy and pain of the process, not just the outcome. For experts, nothing is difficult. But how can you become an expert on something if you don’t try it first? Or even worse, if you don’t put the time and effort to develop the expertise.

Your mind is full of thoughts and beliefs. The pain associated with learning is part of a self-defense mechanism.Your brain is lazy and chooses the most straightforward path; your mind worries and can be deceiving. You must tame your mind to stop thoughts from eating you alive.

>>  Embrace the bumpy road. The learning curve is anything but predictable. The initial passion quickly turns into a honeymoon until suddenly you hit the wall and get stuck. Or, even worse, one day you feel you made progress and, the next one, you believe you know less than when you started the journey. Don’t panic. Learn to enjoy the ride.

>> Don’t quit, sit on it. When you hit a wall or feel stuck, take a break. Learning can be painful, but it doesn’t need to be unbearable. A pause is very productive for reflection and to create more connections. Even when you are sleeping, your brain continues to process the most recent experiences.

>> Google more than once. Literally and metaphorically. Don’t take the first answer as the only answer. Listen to different arguments. Read more than one article or book on the same topic. Train your brain to learn, not to stick to the effortless answer. 

>> Practice makes perfect. There are no shortcuts to real learning. Some tricks might help you accelerate your curve, but you cannot skip the journey. Doing something over and over again doesn’t just make learning easier. It changes your brain — its cells grow and form new connections. 

Don’t let what you are good at limit your possibilities. Explore new options. Learn how to re purpose your skills and knowledge to do something different.

The more you practice something, the less you have to think about it. Being good at what you do, limits your learning potential. Career change is the new normal, opening new possibilities for personal growth.

                “Being a student is easy. Learning requires actual work.”