When nothing exciting is going on, we might get bored, distracted, and disconnected from the moment. So we look for new entertainment, surf channels, and flip through magazines. When these societally induced tendencies translate into the learning process, they have a devastating effect.

Dealing With Distractions

“In my experience, successful people shoot for the stars, put their hearts on the line in every battle, and ultimately discover that the lessons learned from the pursuit of excellence mean much more than the immediate trophies and glory.”

<ul><li>If you want to be the best, you have to take risks others would avoid, always optimizing the learning potential of the moment and turning adversity to your advantage. </li><li> When aiming for the top, your path requires an engaged, searching mind. You have to make obstacles spur you to creative new angles in the learning process. You should always come off an injury or a loss better than when you went down.</li><li>Big setbacks and adversity are often the greatest teachers. These are the moments where you confront the scary pain of life but have the opportunity to learn from them and grow.</li></ul>

Using Adversity As Fuel

If you never fail, you aren’t aiming high enough. Without failure and pushing yourself to the limits, you’re unlikely to learn and grow rapidly.If you want to be excellent, you need to maintain a high degree of curiosity and remain on the steep part of the learning curve. This often means choosing to stretch yourself more than what is comfortable, but the long-run benefits of such an approach can bear lots of tasty fruit.

Excellence and Testing Your Limits

We look at the world through a relative lens. You compare your success to your friends, not to the average. You compare your intelligence to your peers, not to other groups. Looking at everything through a relative lens gives meaning to opposite ends of a spectrum.

A Comparative Lens

“It is rarely a mysterious technique that drives us to the top, but rather a profound mastery of what may well be a basic skill set.”

“The key to pursuing excellence is to embrace an organic, long-term learning process, and not to live in a shell of static, safe mediocrity. Usually, growth comes at the expense of previous comfort or safety.”

Instead of always trying to be “on,” learn to take short rests to allow yourself to recharge. Your thinking is often clearer after a period of rest. <ul><li>To learn how to ebb and flow quickly between being “on” and “off,” introduce interval training into your exercise routine.</li><li> In between sets, you let things go and relax the mind.</li><li> Then, you get going again. </li></ul>Your new abilities will flow over into your performance outside of the gym as well.

Interval Training

Think about this: What emotional states fuel your performance? Once you know this, learn to create those emotional states through triggers or routines that put you in a state of creative expression and inspiration. Or learn to be effective in different states you face.

Use Your Emotions To Sharpen Your Game

“In the end, mastery involves discovering the most resonant information and integrating it so deeply and fully it disappears and allows us to fly free.”

“The secret is that everything is always on the line. The more present we are at practice, the more present we will be in competition, in the boardroom, at the exam, the operating table, the big stage. If we have any hope of attaining excellence, let alone of showing what we’ve got under pressure, we have to be prepared by a lifestyle of reinforcement. Presence must be like breathing.”

Handpicked sources to help you adapt to the mindset of lifelong learners

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A child chess champion and Tai Chi Chuan world champion describes his journies to the top, sharing the lessons he has learned and identifying key principles about learning and performance that readers can apply to their life goals.

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Josh Waitzkin knows what it means to be at the top of his game. A public figure since winning his first National Chess Championship at the age of nine, Waitzkin was catapulted into a media whirlwind as a teenager when his father's book "Searching for Bobby Fischer" was made into a major motion picture. After dominating the scholastic chess world for ten years, Waitzkin expanded his horizons, taking on the martial art Tai Chi Chuan and ultimately earning the title of World Champion. How was he able to reach the pinnacle of two disciplines that on the surface seem so different? "I've come to realize that what I am best at is not Tai Chi, and it is not chess," he says. "What I am best at is the art of learning."In his riveting new book, "The Art of Learning," Waitzkin tells his remarkable story of personal achievement and shares the principles of learning and performance that have propelled him to the top -- twice.With a narrative that combines heart-stopping martial arts wars and tense chess face-offs with life lessons that speak to all of us, "The Art of Learning" takes readers through Waitzkin's unique journey to excellence. He explains in clear detail how a well-thought-out, principled approach to learning is what separates success from failure. Waitzkin believes that achievement, even at the championship level, is a function of a lifestyle that fuels a creative, resilient growth process. Rather than focusing on climactic wins, Waitzkin reveals the inner workings of his everyday method, from systematically triggering intuitive breakthroughs, to honing techniques into states of remarkable potency, to mastering the art of performance psychology.Through his own example, Waitzkin explains how to embrace defeat and make mistakes work for you. Does your opponent make you angry? Waitzkin describes how to channel emotions into creative fuel. As he explains it, obstacles are not obstacles but challenges to overcome, to spur the growth process by turning weaknesses into strengths. He illustrates the exact routines that he has used in all of his competitions, whether mental or physical, so that you too can achieve your peak performance zone in any competitive or professional circumstance.In stories ranging from his early years taking on chess hustlers as a seven year old in New York City's Washington Square Park, to dealing with the pressures of having a film made about his life, to International Chess Championships in India, Hungary, and Brazil, to gripping battles against powerhouse fighters in Taiwan in the Push Hands World Championships, "The Art of Learning" encapsulates an extraordinary competitor's life lessons in a page-turning narrative.

JOSH WAITZKIN