Learning, Excellence and Relationships

In his book, Waitzkin shares the themes of learning, the influence of resilience, and the mindset for excellence. The book challenges the reader to conceptualize abstract ideas. I applaud the following principles of learning:

• Beginner’s Mind: Create the excitement and openness that can come with being a true novice.

• Investment in Loss/Losing to Win: Failure isn’t just “OK” in learning; it is by definition part of the learning process. 

• Building Your Trigger: Intentionally find ways to enter your most productive working states.  

• Breaking Stallions: Stay true to your unique disposition and personal strengths—preserve your “natural voice”—in your pursuit

• Making Smaller Circles: Work on mastering and refining essential (and possibly basic) skillsets at the deepest level. Depth over breadth.

• Slowing Down Time: Uncover mechanisms through which one can find the razor-sharp focus that comes in times of crisis—but without an actual crisis!

 
In 2011, Luke Jacob, a Trinity Valley School faculty member, and I met with Waitzkin to discuss learning and education. (On a side note: Mr. Jacob is teaching an online course in creative writing to LJCDS students and will also assist with college essays this year.) Waitzkin is a master teacher and believes that learning is the result of struggling through challenges while teaching is the process of framing that challenge. 
 
When Waitzkin sent me an article that investigated the journey of Olympic swimmers to reach optimal performance, I suspected it would be worth careful reading. Every once in awhile an article causes one to pause and reflect; this is one of those articles. The report examines the experiences of swimmers at every level of ability over a six-year period.  
 
The author, Dr. Chambliss, defines excellence as the “consistent superiority of performance.” He finds that excellence does not result from quantitative changes in behavior such as increased training time or simply doing more of the same. His research suggests that greatness is achieved through qualitative differentiation. Someone who practices one hour a day and increases to two hours a day has made a quantitative change of behavior. A qualitative change for a swimmer would be sculling the outwards instead of pulling your arms straight back.
 
Excellence is not electrifying; rather it is the confluence of many small adjustments, each one learned, which have been carefully drilled into habit. There is nothing extraordinary or superhuman in the actions of the most successful behavior; only that the actions are done consistently, with precision, and all together to produce excellence. It is a journey of meticulously and discretely advancing precise habits, shaping values and setting goals. The most remarkable swimmers are committed to continual adjustments and the pursuit to make small changes.  

Now that you know Dr. Chambliss is serious about excellence, I hope you take a moment to read an interview about his new book with Christopher G. Takacs, How College Works. Dr. Chambliss’ thesis claims that what matters most in college and all education is the relationships, not the programs.
 
I hope this interview is one of those articles that causes you to pause and reflect.