In any area of your life, there are two zones – the performance zone and the learning zone.

The goal of the performance zone is to do the best you possibly can – to execute flawlessly.  The goal of the learning zone is to improve and that includes learning from mistakes. Proactively and deliberately spending time moving between these zones leads to improvement and growth.

The value of spending time in the learning zone is the time spent breaking down abilities into component skills and putting a laser focus on practice and improvement in that specific area.  Eduardo Briceno outlines 4 conditions of an optimal learning zone. They are:

• You must believe and understand that you can improve
• You must want to improve
• You must have an idea how to improve
• You must be in a low-stakes situation  so that mistakes have limited impact

Briceno in his TEDTalk points out that so much of our lives are spent in the performance zone and in situations with high stakes it is difficult to dedicate the time and energy to the learning zone. He notes that even schools – halls of learning – are actually performance zones for our children.

Commit to your time in the learning zone, make a plan for it and as a leader create the space at your work and in your home so others are encouraged to get in the zone too!