Learning Zone vs Performance Zone for the Quilter in me! (Friday Foto Fun #69)
Happy February and thank goodness it's Friday! I watched an interesting TED Talk lately by Eduardo Briceño - How to get better at things you care about. It's an 11-minute video that I had to watch for work but seemed really relevant even for my home life and quilting life.
The video talks about the learning zone and the performance zone. The learning zone is where you take the time to make mistakes and learn new things in a safe environment whereas the performance zone is where you do your work and essentially are performing or doing the tasks at hand. If you have the time, watch the video because Eduardo really explains it better than me!
This got me thinking about my Quilting career and how much I've been operating in the performance zone - blog hops, making quilt after quilt, making patterns etc. I feel like I'm doing great and performing well at making quilts and keeping up with the hustle.
However, my goal for free motion quilting on my domestic machine hasn't really materialized and it's not due to lack of tools or books. I have not one but two great machines that I can free motion on and more books than I'll ever get through to teach me free motion quilting. I've also taken many classes from fabulous instructors for learning how to free motion quilt. But that's not enough. I've never really allowed myself the time or the opportunity to really learn how to do it through repetition and practice. Essentially I haven't allowed myself to be in the learning zone long enough to get good at this skill.
So here's the deal... I signed up to participate in the Dust off a Quilt Book Blog Hop hosted by Beaquilter at the end of this month and I'm picking up the 180 Doodle Quilting Designs book to learn the doodle part. I realize that the only motif I know well is the infinity loop, and it's because I doodle that motif constantly! I figured I could use this blog hop to force myself into the learning zone and maybe just maybe, I can move the dial on learning other free motion motifs outside of the infinity loop!
Wish me luck!
How much time do you spend in the learning zone compared to the performance zone?
Your turn! What did you accomplish this week? A block? A quilt top? Link up below!
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I’m better at the performance than I am the learning in some ways. If it requires practice, I’ll fall behind because I lack discipline in that area.
Thanks for sharing the video link, Sherry. It was quite interesting. I spend a lot of time in the learning zone – and often don’t go into the performance zone with some of those skills. But, I have found that the skills from the learning zone “sneak in” to the performance zone in surprising ways.
Now I feel a lot less “guilty” about the time I spend watching classes and how-to videos.
I like to think that I am always learning, so my learning and performance zones tend to be pretty blended. I try to incrementally add more challenge in each new quilt. So if I am making a simple quilt, I try to pay more attention to workmanship, sharp points, etc., and if I make something more challenging, then that challenge is enough, and workmanship is important but mistakes are more forgivable.
I’ve found my learning to performance ratio has shifted through the years, and looks like a bell curve. I have hopes of starting on another curve, or at least creating another peak, though the starting part is proving difficult!
Hi Sherry, I’m really looking forward to that blog hop also, but I haven’t figured out what book to dust off yet!
I wanted to wait to comment until I had time to watch the video. It’s really insightful. I feel like I’m really good about the learning zone in some areas of my life, but I struggle with it in quilting. Even when I’m trying a new skill, I’m in the performance zone because there’s inevitably a deadline and I have to do a good job (much like his discussion of students performing in school).
I need to give this some serious thought. Even just a few minutes a day of “playing” would let me learn a lot. Thanks for sharing this, Sherry.
More performance than learning – however – I am doing so much more of my own and designing and that is learning.