The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance

by Josh Waitzkin

I was unhindered by internal conflict—a state of being that I have come to see as fundamental to the learning process.

after making an error, it is so easy to cling to the emotional comfort zone of what was, but there is also that unsettling sense that things have changed for the worse.

Almost invariably, there was a consistent psychological strain to my errors in a given tournament, and what I began to notice is that my problems on the chessboard usually were manifesting themselves in my life outside of chess.

For a period of time, almost all my chess errors came in a moment immediately following or preceding a big change.

A huge element of Tai Chi is releasing obstructions so the body and mind can flow smoothly together.

my mind. I gradually overextended because I always felt on the brink of

William Chen calls this investment in loss. Investment in loss is giving yourself to the learning process.

consistent psychological and technical themes of error.

This is effectively a clearing of interference.

Beginner’s Mind and Investment in Loss have been. Periodically,

performer is ready for action, and times when he or she is soft, in flux, broken-down or in a period of growth. Learners in this phase are inevitably vulnerable. It is important to have perspective on this and allow yourself protected periods for cultivation.

The learning principle is to plunge into the detailed mystery of the micro in order to understand what makes the macro tick.

Pouring tea creates the perfect punch, because people’s minds don’t get in the way.

When throwing my right, I don’t think about anything technical anymore, my body just knows the right feeling and does it. No mind. It’s in the blood. I’ve learned how to throw a straight right. But not really.

Depth beats breadth any day of the week, because it opens a channel for the intangible, unconscious, creative components of our hidden potential.

First, we have to learn to be at peace with imperfection. I mentioned the image of a blade of grass bending to hurricane-force winds in contrast to a brittle twig snapping under pressure. Next, in our performance training, we learn to use that imperfection to our advantage—for example thinking to the beat of the music or using a shaking world as a catalyst for insight. The third step of this process, as it pertains to performance psychology, is to learn to create ripples in our consciousness, little jolts to spur us along, so we are constantly inspired whether or not external conditions are inspiring.

Any moment that one piece can control, inhibit, or tie down two or more pieces, a potentially critical imbalance is created on the rest of the board.

injury. I call this tool the internal solution—we can notice external events that trigger helpful growth or performance opportunities, and then internalize the effects of those events without their actually happening. In this way, adversity becomes a tremendous source of creative inspiration.

The idea is to shift the primary role from the conscious to the unconscious without blissing out and losing the precision the conscious can provide.

At the opponent’s slightest move, I move first.

The deepest form of adherence or shadowing involves a switching of roles, where the follower becomes the followed in a relationship in which time seems to twist in a tangle of minds—this is how the great Tai Chi or Aikido artist guides the opponent into a black hole, or appears to psychically impel the other to throw himself on the ground.

At the opponent’s slightest move, I move first.

Because our minds are so complex, if you give us a small amount of material to work with, and we do it with great intensity, then we can break it down into microscopic detail.

sports psychologist Jim Loehr,

I believed the quality of a chessic thought process was higher if it was preceded by a period of relaxation. This simple question led to a revolution in my approach to peak performance.

The physiologists at LGE had discovered that in virtually every discipline, one of the most telling features of a dominant performer is the routine use of recovery periods.

might think about the position in a more abstract way, or I might even walk away from the board and have a

work to raise my heart rate, and less time to lower my heart rate during rest: soon my rest intervals were only forty-five seconds and my sprint times longer.

cardiovascular interval training can have a profound effect on your ability to quickly release tension and recover from mental exhaustion. What is more, physical flushing and mental clarity are very much intertwined.

this is what my entire approach to learning is based on—breaking down the artificial barriers between our diverse life experiences so all moments become enriched by a sense of interconnectedness.

I can’t tell you how liberating it is to know that relaxation is just a blink away from full awareness.

the ability to dive deeply into the banal and discover life’s hidden richness—is where success, let alone happiness, emerges.

First, we learn to flow with distraction, like that blade of grass bending to the wind. Then we learn to use distraction, inspiring ourselves with what initially would have thrown us off our games. Finally we learn to re-create the inspiring settings internally. We learn to make sandals.

Instead of being thrown off by or denying my irritation, I had to somehow channel it into a profound state of concentration. It wasn’t until my martial arts career that I really learned how to do this.

side, I had to get comfortable dealing with guys playing outside the rules and targeting my neck, eyes, groin, etc.

Dirty players were my best teachers.

refinements they couldn’t imagine. To have

We have created a body of theory around a fleeting moment of