The Stress of Learning

I am incredibly excited that “The Innovator’s Mindset” is now available as an Audiobook. It has been requested in this format often, and so I am glad to accommodate many people who consume their learning through this format.

A little about the process though…

Below is one of the quotes from the book:

From the moment that we confirmed we were going to do the audio version of this book, until the minute I stressed about the process.  With our daughter Kallea being just over a year old, we noticed that when she is learning a new skill (crawling, walking, etc.) that she is struggling with, she gets way less sleep.  The stress of new learning can become overwhelming, and I went through the same process with this book.  I didn’t know how it would go or what the process would look like, and when it was suggested that I could get a “professional reader,” the stress only got higher.  The process felt like it was more than simply “reading aloud.”

I have a weird issue that is the opposite for many. While several people I know get stressed speaking in front of large crowds, I get much more stressed talking in front of small groups.  The way that I see it…If you tell a joke to a room full of 1000 people and half of them laugh, it sounds like they are all laughing.  If you share a joke to 10 people and half laugh, I can literally pick the people out of the room who didn’t think it was funny.  Not fun! So as I sat there in a room with an audio engineer going through the process, I would get stuck on individual words and sentences, that I could not seem to get through.  Luckily, through the magic of editing, you don’t have to listen through that struggle, but it bothered me at the time.

What I appreciated through the process was that the people who worked with me, including the audio engineer and Dave and Shelley Burgess, were so supportive through the whole thing, that even when I messed up and struggled, they had my back.  Is that not the same thing we want from our teachers? That our students feel challenged yet supported?

When I completed the book, I was pleased that I did something that was challenging for me, because I often push people to try things that are uncomfortable for themselves.  But as one of my favorite speakers, Inky Johnson states:

Yes, the product matters.   But the process is crucial, and I am glad that I did something that stretched my learning and pushed me out of my comfort zone.  In education, the process is often the product. The ability to learn means we extend ourselves toward progress, not stand still.

(Thank you to everyone who supported me in this process, and pushed me to make it happen. If you are looking for a copy of the audio, kindle, or paper version of the book, they can all be found here.)

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