There are an almost infinite number of betterment platforms out there, ready to fill our heads with skills and our hands with the tools. It’s the information age! We aren’t lacking the resources to learn and do new things.
Then why aren’t we all Einsteins and Rockefellers? It’s not for lack of trying. The tech ed sector has evolved immensely in this young century which was $89 billion in 2020 is projected to be over $375 billion by 2028. That’s a lot of education-hungry people. But what are they being fed?
In this content-oversaturated, forever-niching world, you can’t teach kids a job that doesn’t exist yet and your career might change before your employer does. So learning new skills and picking up new practices isn’t for the hobby sector anymore, it’s been professionalized into skill stacking.
But the way most learning platforms help users through this is with the threats of this scary world and a shiny certification at the end of a hard series of lessons. In other words, the only way to learn is with passive lectures that ask you to invest a lot upfront (energy, money, time) with a single goal (a skill mastery or a certification) dangling at the horizon. We’re all so used to doing this, we don’t think to question it: we have to get through the work rather than finding a way to enjoy the journey itself to get there.
This has created a burnout effect. Investing a lot in a large goal only to not enjoy the process we have to endure to get there and losing momentum before finishing. As a study done by UCLA can attest to, visualizing a goal, regardless of making you hate the journey to it more, can make you practice less as you spend mental energy living in a hypothetical future instead of spending time practicing to get there.
Also, trying is hard! We HATE sucking at things. We HATE stepping into the unknown. We HATE sharing our less than perfect work that we have to do if we’re going to learn.
No wonder only 5–15% of those who sign up for a course ever complete it!
Bridging the gap between wanting to start any practice and actually doing that practice is the educational challenge of our time (and our app).
So what’s missing? Purpose and motivation.
And how do we get it? With practice and fun!
Prax’s Micropractice™ prompt-response, experiential learning community is built to enjoy the journey of discovery, the fun you can have in each small step, and the feeling of accomplishment for every single one of those steps.
Trying can be fun! By ENJOYING prompts that ask us to have fun with first steps. By ENJOYING getting out of our comfort zones because new is exciting! By ENJOYING sharing our first, second, and third tries with people because we trust them to encourage our efforts and know that we can do the same for their practices.
Grand intentions are great. But when goals get in the way of how you get there, it’s time to reexamine our journeys. Let’s get back to the enjoyment of practice and trust that fun, curiosity, and creativity can be the universal means to any end.
Happy praxing!
