Learning and Frustration

People struggle with frustration.
Learning and frustration are connected.
But we often run away from the frustration. We stop when we should continue, break through the barrier of frustration and get to the light. If you stop your practice in the moment you get frustrated, you will lose the ability to push through the frustrating, thus making you very vulnerable when it comes to learning, always in need for perfect conditions.
Just keep on going. Stopping when frustration hits is one of the biggest threats to learning. If you want to learn a Handstand be ready to get frustrated. If you want to learn a new language, be ready to get frustrated, if you want to learn to play an instrument be ready to get frustrated.

People stop to learn new things because they feel safe in the realm of what the already know and do. The moment we get frustrated it feels like an existential threat, something that pierces into our soul, something that hurts the whole being. The exercise is to be able to continue through this moment, to protect the soul less and therefore making it stronger.

The coordinative patterns we train in the shown video can be very frustrating to learn. Students ask me "but why should I do this?", which just translates into "I am very frustrated and want to stop" (see also my video-lecture "Vordenkleistung" where I talk about this issue).

To be able to continue when we are frustrated is a meta-learning exercise, when we get more advanced in this exercise, learning becomes more accessible.
Stay challenged, get frustrated regularly. Keep your ability to learn, keep your ability to change yourself. Don't run away. Don't die before it's time.

Joseph Bartz
2017