How fear inhibits learning - and what to do about it
Ever ridden a roller coaster that scared and excited you at the same time? Its how I felt last year, when I signed for a course quite blindly—in the sense that I had no idea what I was getting into. I was learning something new after a very long time. It was blended learning, Classroom sessions, Webinars, digital assignments, recordings…not how I learned 30 years ago!
Was I the only one feeling anxious? It certainly looked like it. My classmates seemed confident and competent ( and younger!) – skilled at using various programmes on the computer, turning in awesome presentations, asking intelligent questions in the class and contributing meaningfully. What had I done?!! How could I recover?
Yet, as the weeks progressed, I became immersed in the learning’s. Towards the end of the course, I put in 5 hours every day for a week to complete the assignments. Not once did I feel frustrated and overwhelmed. Instead I was feeling engaged, excited and proud of my work. And I was learning and gaining confidence. Group discussion did not leave me anxious – I no longer worried--had I said something stupid?
So, what changed in a mere six months?
I began to care about the material. I started to see the value and relevance of the work I was doing and the importance of the new skills to my career. I also began to bond with the other participants. The facilitator was engaging, personal and very encouraging. I started to not only enjoy the class but could offer valuable inputs to others. I began to look forward to the sessions and care about how well I did.
Fear left my body and that changed my thought patterns and memory. Anxiety means a presence of threat, right? It’s the opposite of curiosity that compels us to explore and engage and go towards exploring intellectual possibilities. If you’re anxious, it narrows your focus towards the perceived threat and how to get rid of it. How can anyone learn, problem solve or even innovate when under intense pressure? (Sometimes, we are bored, disinterested or unmotivated)
In a NYT article, Dr. Helen Immordino-Yang, a Neuroscientist at USC's Rossier School of Education and at the school's Brain and Creativity Institute talks about what a engaged student looks like on the inside using a functional M.R.I., a scanner that reveals brain function in real time.
“When students are emotionally engaged,” she said, “we see activations all around the cortex, in regions involved in cognition, memory and meaning-making, and even all the way down into the brain stem.”
Fear or any other negative emotion is not conducive to mastery. So, how can we stay engaged? One way is to find personally relevant reasons for why it’s important to you. Make it personal. Find supportive mates. Figure out the why.
Think about it— It is literally impossible to think, learn or memorize things that you don’t care about. If you perceive something impersonally or are detached from the material, it will adversely affect your retention and learning. When we do something out of obligation, duty or fear we fail to engage our deepest motivation. This is a lesson for any kind of work—if we can only make it personal and connect with the outcome-- we can scale any task –no matter how tough it might be.
As Edmund Hillary said ““It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves”.
As a life Coach, an important element of coaching a client is inner motivation. We are all unique individuals and we have unique triggers that engage us. My mentor coach once asked me, “What is the one thing you do that has you humming under your breath?”