Learning how to learn better

If you’ve ever either set a goal to learn something new or noticed yourself slowly moving towards digging deeper into a new thing in our life, then you’re likely familiar with the process of becoming proficient at that thing. 

For me, that process of learning a new thing has almost always gone something like:
1. Discovery - Oh, that’s a thing?

2. Interest - Ah, I see a value in getting into that. (either because it’s fun, healthy for me, good for my career, good for my relationships, or any number of other reasons - good or not)

3. Dabble - Let me try this a bit and see if I like it or feel like I want to be good at it.

4. Decision - Yes, I’m going to really get into this and stop just dabbling.

5. Humbling - No, I don’t really know everything I need to about doing this thing. Damn, I’m not a genius and special.

6. Rabbit Hole - Inarguable the most enjoyable for me - this is the “now that I’ve decided I’m going to do this and recognized I don’t know everything about everything, I want to learn as much as I can about it so I can get better at it as quickly as possible or as quickly as I need to accomplish a goal.”

If you’ve been following this newsletter, you may know that I’ve been running more and more lately. One might say I’ve gone down the running rabbit hole. What used to be a piece of my weekly training regimen has become the focus and now my weight lifting regimen revolves around the distance routine, rather than the other way around.

For the first time in my life I can say I’m someone who runs distance (nuanced difference in my pecking order from being “a distance runner”, but I may qualify in my own head soon). 

Early on, in the Interest and Dabble phases, I just went out and ran. I became interested because improved cardiovascular health/performance leads to all kinds of positive short and long-term life outcomes. So, I pushed myself to go harder and faster each time. But I wasn’t really improving so my desire to transition into the Decision phase was pretty slow, but I got their eventually. 

I did understand that in order to run a fast 5k, one shouldn’t just do 5k’s all the time. But I wasn’t trying to go to the Olympics and wrongly assumed I’d just make incremental progress by doing something.

Ironically it was the same thing I preach in the education world. If we want kids to get better at math we need to teach them more than the math itself. Since getting an A in math is a goal - students need to understand what to do when they get something wrong, when they encounter a problem they can’t solve, how to reflect on how they did get something right, that their sleep and nutrition will affect their math performance, and so on. 

I went down that rabbit hole and much more recently on Joshua Stamper’s “Aspire to Lead” podcast for education leaders. (on Apple Podcasts and Spotify)

Back to solving the problem at hand - If you’re a distance runner or someone who likes to run distance, you may be piecing together what I was doing wrong. But for some reason, I didn’t think to do any research. I just couldn’t be bothered and I wasn’t too worried about it. I just didn’t prioritize it, even as my frustration grew at not getting any better at something I was doing, and I was sure that my background was “enough” to get me.

Then I had a random conversation with ultra-runner Joe Buckler on our team at Classroom Champions. Enter the Humbling phase.

(Btw - we have some incredible distance runners on the team at Classroom Champions. From Katherine Peterson, who runs 100k ultras to Joe, who runs marathons and ultras to Melissa Bishop, who went to three Olympics in the 800m, and more!) 

I was talking with Joe about my frustration of not improving much and he uncovered what turns out to be a fairly ubiquitous concept in distance running - make sure 80% of your runs are “slow” and 20% are “fast”. 

Slow down to run faster. Who’d have thought?!

But it worked. I learned something new that’s already paying dividends, I bet there’s a lot more out there - and into the Rabbit Hole phase, I went!

What’s fascinated me the most is that the mechanism for improvement is completely different and counterintuitive from what I’m used to in power sports like bobsled or sprinting. We would never lift lighter most of the time in order to get stronger. Progressive overload, which calls for gradually increasing the weight you’re lifting, is literally one of the base principles for getting stronger.

But in running, very few of your total runs are going to be all-out effort runs. You’ll be doing tempo runs, interval (and sprints) runs, hill training, long runs, accessory work, and so on. 

Once again, I’m getting better not by following my own instincts. But by following the advice of people who know better than me. I’m now over 50km (30 miles) per week and aiming for more, while also running faster times in my 5k!

When I reflect on it, here’s the bigger picture I’m seeing from all this and what this process has both reminded me and taught me… When it comes to learning new things, there are two crucial things we can’t skip if we want to succeed. 

Simple thing one: Seek guidance from someone who knows better.

If I hadn’t stepped back and sought guidance, expertise, and feedback (by talking with friends with more experience and or coaches, doing some research, and so on), I’d probably have injured myself by now… or at the very least, wouldn’t be putting in the same distance I’ve been logging.

In fact, I might not even be running at all. Or I might still be out there trying, unsuccessfully, to run that elusive 22-minute 5k.

I had to question my assumptions. I had to have the humility to know that my own instincts and even my own knowledge/memory (I do have a degree in Exercise Physiology, after all) might not be right. 

I had to get outside myself. 

Considering I started an organization based on mentorship from world-class experts, this is intuitive for me. And I skipped it. So it’s clear to me it’s something that has to be constantly farmed inside our minds or else we’ll get caught in our head’s echo chamber. 

Simple thing two: Make the choice to have the discipline to follow the advice. 

Assuming it’s good advice (and you trust the source and it corresponds with other research or grounded guidance), then you have to consciously go out there and follow it.

As many runners will tell you, going slow takes discipline. It feels way more productive on any given day to run fast. And lots of runners skip hill work altogether, because, well, it’s hard. 

Doing hard things, doing anything, is a choice. We have to choose to follow the advice. Discipline just doesn’t happen on its own. 

“I can’t” often first needs to be replaced with “I will” inside our own heads to make that switch stick.

(Far more people don’t do any cardio work at all. You can even buy “I hate cardio” t-shirts. Which, to me, is sometimes a decision people make to tell themselves why they don’t do the hard thing!)

But that’s where the discipline - and mindset - comes in. I know that if I can put aside my preference and inclinations and simply follow the plan, I’ll get results. I’ve completed enough things I didn’t think I could do to know that simple piece of the puzzle.

So that’s it: Seek guidance, then make the choice to have the discipline to follow through with it.

Simple, not necessarily easy. But I know from experience it works.

In something new and with the purpose to continue to learn from each other - I’d love to hear from you about any past or now-planned “better” moments in learning or learning to do something new. What did you do to learn? Where did you get the new knowledge? Someone you know, a podcast, a newsletter? How’d it go/how’s it going?

Fill out this simple form to submit your better process.

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- Steve