Want to unlock your full learning potential? Get in the zone.

Humans are keen to move towards comfort, yet learning never takes place from a point of comfort. Learning is complex, holistic, and requires effort. We tend to move away from things we find too difficult; videos that are too complex to understand are clicked away. Articles that are too difficult to understand are skipped. If we need someone else to help us, we want to find something easier to show that we’re already proficient. But what if you find materials that are not too difficult but difficult enough for you to optimise your learning? What if that reliance on help can actually make our learning better? Welcome to your Zone of Proximal Development.

What is the Zone of Proximal Development?

To understand the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), consider the following example: imagine you are at the gym for leg day, practising your technique while squatting. You probably started squatting with the bar, and as soon as you were able to do three sets without difficulty, you added weights to the bar to increase resistance. The question immediately arises: how many lbs (or kgs) should you add to your bar? Should you add 10kgs on each side and risk injuring your knees, or should you add 5kgs on each side and run the risk of not seeing (or feeling, trust me) any improvements? The dilemma that…