Good Life Project - Accelerated Learning with Exercise. Getting Out of Your Lane.

Episode Date: September 7, 2017

In today's GLP Update, we're talking about how to break out of your lane and keep your career, and how physical activity affects accelerated learning.Good Life Riff: Ever hear the phrase, "stay in your lane?" Yep, us too. It's most often offered as a warning to people who are considering moving away from the thing they've become known for in the quest to do something more interesting. Thing is, there is a way to both build and change lanes that gives you way more freedom than the way most people do it. That's what we're talking about in today's GLP Riff.Good Life Science: And, in our Good Life Science segment, we're diving into some fascinating new research on accelerated learning and physical activity. We've known for some time that physical activity "around" exercise can help speed learning. But, what about moving your body "during" learning? Today's Good Life Science Update dives into new research that show something remarkable about accelerated learning, language and physical activity. Something that, according to detractors of multitasking, probably shouldn't happen. Listen in and learn...maybe while riding a bike! And, as always, for those want to go to the source, here's a link to the full study.Rockstar Sponsors: Audible has the best audiobook performances, the largest library, and the most exclusive content. Learn more, start your 30-day trial and get your first Audible book free, go to Audible.com/goodlife.RXBAR Kids is a snack bar made with high-quality, real ingredients designed specifically for kids. It contains 7 grams of protein and has zero added sugar and no gluten, soy or dairy. Find at Target stores OR for 25% off your first order, visit RXBAR.com/goodlife.Get paid online, on-time with Freshbooks, a cloud accounting software that makes it insanely easy for freelancers and professionals to get paid online, track expenses and do more of what you love. Get your 1-month free trial, no credit card required, at FreshBooks.com/goodlife (enter The Good Life Project in the “How Did You Hear About Us?” section). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, hello, it's Jonathan with today's Good Life Update, where we blend a couple of different segments today. We have a riff for you and a science update. Today's riff is kind of talking about something you may have heard or been told in work, business, and life, which is you got to stay in your lane. We're going to deconstruct that a little bit. And on the science side of things, really interesting research on how exercise may affect your ability to learn, not just before and after, but actually exercise during learning. Stay tuned. We're diving into these two fun areas. I'm Jonathan Fields, and this is Good Life Project. The Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever.

It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest-charging Apple Watch, getting you eight hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series X. Available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations,

iPhone Xs are later required. Charge time and actual results will vary. Mayday, mayday. We've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were gonna be fun. On January 24th. Tell me how to fly this thing.

Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're going to die. Don't shoot him. We need him. Y'all need a pilot. Flight risk. All right.

So conventional wisdom. Oof. I have a love-hate relationship with that word. Actually, maybe it's more. I don't know if we could actually really include the love part in there all that seriously. sort of time served in building a career, building a reputation, building a brand, is that you've got to, quote, stay in your lane. That you kind of pick an area or a field. You become known for one particular thing, one vibe, one sort of area of expertise, one sound. And people want you because of that, that you become known for that thing. People want you and they want to be around you.

They want to hire you for that thing. And you build your living, your livelihood. You contribute to the world by getting better and better at that thing. And that's how you do it. That is how a grownup does it. You don't change lanes because when you change lanes, then people get freaked out. People want you to stay in your lane. People want you to say, they want to sort of box you in and say, well, you're the X person. You're the pop psychology person who talks about relationships. You are the pop musician who has this particular sound. You are the painter who works in this particular thing and has this style. And that can sometimes work. And some folks can be super happy staying in that quote lane for their entire lives. But a lot of people are not happy there. A lot of people stay there because they start to feel like if they, quote, change lanes and do something

different, then people who have lined up their community, their employees, the people who they've built a reputation in service of will stop listening or watching or paying for them to do that thing that they've learned to do so well in your lane. So they don't stay in their lanes because they want to be there. They stay in their lanes because they're terrified that people won't follow them into a different lane. And here's the stark reality. Sometimes that's true. Sometimes people don't want to follow you. Sometimes people are like, hey, what are you doing? I listen to your podcast. I buy your art.

I hire you for this particular part of a company. Because you do this one thing and you do it really good, I like the fact that you do this one thing and you do it really, really well. And I want you to keep doing that because I want more of that. And I want you to be the person that I get it from. And if you stop doing that, I'm going to have to find somebody else. And maybe they won't be as good or interesting as you at this. And you're going to be disrupting me. So don't change lanes because I don't want you to. Sometimes that is part of the reality.

Sometimes that will mean that if you hit a point in your life or career where you're like, you know what, I have tried in every conceivable way to make this one particular lane work for me, and it's not working. I really want to do something. I need to change lanes. Then some people are going to not go along with you. Some people will follow because they just dig you. They trust you, your discernment, your ability to bring them to a place that's good in this

other place. And others will just organically dig the lane that you're headed into, but others will abandon you. And those others may include people who you want in your life and people who may be paying your rent. There will be a cost, pretty much always is. But there's also a cost to staying in your lane for life when the lane that you're in is bleeding you dry or emptying your soul. So you got to kind of weigh them, but also go into it realistically. But there's kind of something more nuanced that people don't talk about here. And this is where I want to go, which is that part of the whole conversation around changing lanes and having to start from zero, it assumes that your lane is based on a specific area of expertise or

genre or sound or knowledge about a content domain. So, you know, if you are a musician, you know, it assumes that it's based on the fact that you play a particular instrument in a particular genre of music in a particular way with a particular sound. If you are a coder, you know, you're known as being the person who does this one particular thing really well in the gaming world. And you create this very specific type of program or app, and that's what you're really good at. If you're a designer, you're known as having one specific look or style. And people associate your lane with sort of like that thing. But there's another way to actually craft a lane that allows you a lot more freedom, although it very often takes longer to develop people who trust you to follow it. And that is

when your lane is focused less around a specific area of expertise or genre or sound or look or style or area of content, but it's actually focused more around your unique voice, your unique point of view, your unique process. Because people who tend to create enduring influence and creative careers that last for decades and generations, very often they're sort of constantly changing the focus, but they actually have developed a consistent voice, unique lens, point of view, and process or methodology. And they just apply that to different areas. And they build their lane around people trusting that unique lens point of view process or methodology. And then people are happy because they know no matter what you apply it to,

it's going to be what they want. So the lane is not around the specific sort of outcome or application. It is around your internal process, lens, and point of view. So some examples to give you sort of like a feel of what I'm talking about here, because it may be a little bit hard to sort of figure this out. If you look at, let's take Mumford and Son, a band I happen to really dig. They built their lane around a very specific sound. It was kind of like all acoustic, stripped down, bluegrass meets country with a, you know,

like a wisp of pop thrown in there. It was a really unique, different sound. And they built their lane around that very specific sound. People came to their music because they love the sound, that style. So what happens? They do that for years, they're on the road. And then they kind of evolve as human beings, as individuals. They hit the studio one day and they start plugging instruments in and they kind of fall in love with electronics and what they can do with it and synth and all sorts of digital manipulation. And they come out with a new album that profoundly changes Lane from a stylistic standpoint and they struggle. I happen to love that new album, by the way. But that's also because my style tastes are very eclectic. And I don't have any specific interest in one style of music or

genre. But their fans did not follow them for the most part that the album did not do anywhere close to what happened because they quote, changed lanes lanes and their lane was defined by a very specific style rather than a deeper and unique lens, point of view, or process. Now, contrast this with somebody like Madonna, who has had an astonishingly long career, decades long now. And she is known for, as a bit of a chameleon in theory, right? She changed style, she changed sound, she changes looks, constantly changing lanes every X number of years. But what she's actually known for on a deeper level, and why a lot of people have stuck with her, is because the deeper grooved lane, the thing that has sustained and taken people along with them, is that she's been known from the very beginning as somebody who pushes buttons, pushes envelopes, intentionally provokes people to go deeper, to ask questions of themselves, is socially and politically active, and is always going to push you to push your own commitment to a particular lane and question it. So she's somebody who has changed a lot over the

years, but she's kept a really powerful long-term sustained career, remarkably long-term for people in that business who very often, you know, the term one hit wonder is around for a reason. And when you look at it, it's because the lane that people associate with her is something deeper. It's something bigger. It's about a unique lens, point of view, and process, and a trust that whatever she creates will in some way be powerful. Now, will she still lose somebody along the way or groups of people because there were some people attached to a very specific external style? Sure, going to happen. But there's something bigger going on here. If you look at legendary designers, Ray and Charles Eames, who some of you may know, and some of you may not know, absolutely legendary couple in the design world. They have designed,

you know, all sorts of furniture. But at the same time, they were produced documentary films, they created equipment to use on the field for military, for medical purposes. And so they have, in theory, you know, they're not committed to one particular genre or field of expertise or style or content. They developed a very unique lens, a point of view and methodology and process. And when people came to Ray and Charles Eames to help them create something astonishing, they did it because they trusted them and that process, that lens, voice, and point of view, and their ability to figure out something that nobody else could figure out. That was their lane. It was built around something deeper. Milton Glaser is a legend in the design field, really similar.

He shared with me in a conversation a couple of years back that you can watch, we filmed in our video series, how as he became a very well-known person in the field of design, now likely the most iconic living designer, people would come to him and want a particular style that they associated with him. And he would tell them straight up, don't hire me for a style. I completely reject the notion of style. Hire me because you want my unique ability to figure something out for you that is going to be incredible and different. So his lean was not a particular style. It wasn't like the Glazer style.

It was him. It was his unique lens, voice, point of view, and process. Gladwell is a really interesting example as a writer. You know, a lot of writers become experts in a particular field, and they just keep writing books about this one particular field or different aspects of this one particular field or industry or expertise. And publishers will tell authors on a pretty regular basis, do not change lanes. You're known as the X person, you know, you're known as the person, you know, in positive psychology and flourishing, you're known as the person on optimizing culture and business, you know, or if you're on the fiction side of things, you're known as a writer of thrillers. You're known as a romance writer with this particular sub-genre.

Do not change lanes because your readership only wants to hear from you on that one particular thing. And you'll freak them out and they'll leave you if you do. And sometimes they're right. Unless you have built your lane, not around a particular genre or area of expertise, but around your unique point of view, voice, lens, or process.

So Malcolm Gladwell is a really interesting example of this. When he writes books, he writes them about a wide range of topics. But you always know that he has this kind of really unique voice and lens. It's a story meets science woven together and cycling deeper and deeper until finally you find your way in this massive story meets science tale with a giant aha at the end where it all comes together. So he's got his own voice, lens, process, and point of view. The topic doesn't particularly matter. You know whatever topic he latches onto for the couple of years that he's researching and writing a book, he's going to make it something that you want to read. So something to think about is you're thinking about the way you contribute

to the world, the way that you fill your contribution bucket. It's the idea of the lane that you are running in, that you're building, whatever you're building in. Is it defined by something which is more topical, by a specific area of expertise, genre, style, content, or domain? Or is it being defined by a deeper voice, unique lens, point of view, or process? Because the latter very often takes longer to build a following or reputation in that brand. But when you do, it often opens up the ability for you to seemingly change lanes because you're changing topics and genres and all this stuff. But really not because you're staying in the deeper process and voice and point of view lane.

And it allows you a lot more flexibility and creativity to do a lot of different things and have people still follow you and want to hear from you and hire you to work with them. So that's kind of my approach. And people have asked me, like, well, you're known for a particular thing. I'm like, well, I'm known for a particular voice or point of view or lens or methodology or set of capabilities that apply to a wide array of areas and domains and fields.

And that allows me to focus on different things for years at a time. And at the same time, it also has taken longer to build that. And I'm okay with that because it gives me longer term freedom. So that's what I'm thinking about today when I think about lanes and the way you craft your life, your career.

Be sure to stay tuned because after the short break, we're gonna be talking about something pretty cool. It is how physical exercise, how movement affects your ability to learn. Some really cool research on that. Back in just a moment. Whether you're in your running era, Pilates era, or yoga era, dive into Peloton workouts that work with you.

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Compared to previous generations, iPhone Xs are later required. Charge time and actual results will vary. Mayday, mayday. We've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were gonna be fun. On January 24th.

Tell me how to fly this thing. Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're gonna die. Don't shoot him, we need him them y'all need a pilot flight risk so our awesome friends at freshworks make ridiculously easy cloud accounting software for freelancers and small business owners who know that making every single moment count is

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And I always love these sort of good life science updates in no small part because it gives me a consistent motivation to deepen into my number one signature science, which is love of learning. It gives me an excuse to spend time constantly learning and researching and studying. And I'm a bit of a science geek, so I'm always devouring science and studies, in particular, things that affect our ability to live well in the world. This week is no different.

I'm bringing a study to you. Actually, the name of the study is It Takes Biking to Learn. Physical Activity Improves Learning a Second Language. This was published in May. And as always, for my fellow science geeks, we will include a direct link to the full study for people who want to go deep into the methodology. My job here is to just spend a couple of minutes telling you what it was about and giving you the nuggets that may help you apply it to your life. So kind of an interesting thing happens. You've probably heard this, that it's much easier to

learn a second language when you're young, sometimes a third, fourth, fifth language, when you're very young. Just the way that the brain works, it rewires more quickly, it learns more quickly, it forms relationships and adaptations that allow you to learn language with greater ease when you're younger. And as you get older, it becomes harder to learn. have been playing with the notion of how movement, how physical exercise actually affects learning for a lot of years in a lot of different ways. In this one particular study, they explored how study participants actually can learn a second language and whether physical activity makes it easier or harder or faster or slower. And it's building on some earlier research. There's been earlier research that looked at how physical activity immediately before training in language learning affected the learning. And what that showed actually is that it can have a pretty substantial effect in the earlier study, which by the way is referenced

in this research that I'm telling you about. So if you want more details on that too, you can dive into the full report. The earlier studies looked at people who were doing super high intensity exercise, kind of moderate aerobic exercise, and then of course a control group who did nothing. And what it showed was that the people who were doing super high intensity exercise right before language learning actually had a pretty dramatic effect. It made a really big difference in their ability to learn language and to sustain that learning, and they learned it faster. called BDNF, brain-derived neurotropic factor, which activates the brain and brain growth and synaptic connection and in theory facilitates learning. It gets driven up when you're exercising and it lingers in the brain for a chunk of time

afterwards. So if you learn immediately after or train in a second language immediately after, it kind of makes sense, just logically, that it would make a difference. The question in this more recent study is, okay, so building on that, what would happen if we actually explore the effect of learning language, not immediately after exercise, but actually during exercise? I know you're thinking to yourself, dude, how exactly does that happen? How do you study a second language while you're exercising? And that was actually one of my questions. So in this particular study, participants were split into

two groups, as generally happens. You have a control group who does nothing. And then a group of people who actually were put on bicycles, where the intensity and the rate was controlled, so they could actually sort of like figure out what was happening and standardize things. And while they were on these exercise bikes, they were shown images of words and pictures. So they were essentially, they were able to exercise and have language learning presented on a screen in front of them on a fairly automated basis. And the question is, does this make learning better? Does it do nothing or does it make it worse? Now, at first blush, you might actually think, wait, wait a minute, because this is what I thought.

So we've been told also that, quote, multitasking makes everything worse. So in theory, wouldn't riding a bicycle, wouldn't having to exercise and focus on the exercise and maintain a certain heart rate and all this stuff and intensity, wouldn't that, along with simultaneously trying to learn a language, wouldn't that effectively tax your brain on a level where both would probably suffer?

Wouldn't that effectively tax your brain on a level where both would probably suffer? Wouldn't that be multitasking? Wouldn't that be a bad thing for the learning side of things? It turns out the opposite is actually true, that the people who were tasked with learning a second language while exercising actually learned better and sustained that learning over a longer period of time. Now, why that happens and why this sort of multitasking thing doesn't quite fit this is something that still further research probably needs to be done to explain. But among the theories are that there are two things which kind of make sense along this. Y'all need a pilot? Flight risk. The Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever.

It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest-charging Apple Watch, getting you eight hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series 10. Available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone Xs are later required.

Charge time and actual results will vary. One is what I just mentioned, that this chemical, which has been called by some people miracle grow for the brain, this thing, BDNF, brain-derived neurotropic factor, is released during exercise. And that enables a higher level of functioning, a higher level of learning, a higher level of synaptic connections that sustain after exercise. So that actually gives you the, because that is at the highest rate while you're exercising and it drops fairly quickly afterwards, that would potentially explain part of this effect. The other potential explanation, especially on why this seeming multitasking didn't harm and actually helped learning, may be this, that multitasking may

not be as clean or that the restrictions, the constraints caused by multitasking may not be quite as clean as we have assumed. That in fact, when the multitasking involves one task that is largely cognitive in nature and a second task that is largely physical in nature. We may not have the same restrictions as if we were trying to sort of multitask with purely cognitive different tasks, which most people agree is really hard to do, even though there is some research to show that we're getting better at it, potentially because of technology. So that may be a second reason, because one of these things was largely cognitive and the other was largely physical, that it may use the brain in a way where they don't compete as readily as if you're trying to do two or three or four or five purely cognitive things. So really interesting things. And I can actually validate some of this to a certain extent, purely anecdotally in my N of one experiment,

N of one simply meaning that it's an experiment with one person in the study. And here's how. When I study, I have known over the years that when I move while I study, things go into my brain and retain and process way better. So for example, in a very past life, when I was studying to take the bar exam as a newly minted lawyer, I actually studied almost entirely while I was walking. So I would actually stand up and take an outline and walk around my deck for a couple of hours with this outline in my hand. And what I realized was that I just learned way better and way faster when I was moving the entire time.

Now, I made sure that I did it in a controlled environment. I literally was in a place where I would pretty much walk just like a loop around a particular deck, so I didn't have to pay attention to the physical movement. It was fairly automated and repeated. But what I found was that it really did enable learning and memory for me. So validated by my own experience. Anyway, something to play with for you. What would it look like to actually do that? Now, granted, I don't recommend doing this as a pure replacement for exercise and for joyful movement because joyful movement actually has its own deep and profound benefits on a life well lived and state of mind and mood and positive affect. And you want to do that as much as you can. And there's also some other potential research that shows if you're heavily distracted from a cognitive standpoint, and you're doing exercise or movement that is complex in nature, it's going to diminish that and potentially distract you and potentially even make it dangerous. But to play with a sort of fairly repetition-based form of movement in a constrained environment, purely for a window of time where the purpose is to facilitate learning, really interesting study to try running in your life. I'd love to hear if you do it and how it works for you. So that is today's fun conversation around lanes, changing lanes, and also how

physical exercise may well affect, at a minimum, learning a second language and potentially learning in general. Hope you enjoyed, as always. And as we wrap up, I want to give a final shout out to our awesome sponsors and supporters. RX Bar for kids. Chocolate chip, apple, cinnamon, raisin, and berry blast. Find them at Target stores or for 25% off your first order. Visit rxbar.com and enter the promo goodlife at checkout. Audible is my go-to place to find audio books as a good life project listener. You can now get a free audio book with a 30 day trial at audible.com slash good life.

Today's show is sponsored by fresh books, which is a super cool cloud accounting software to claim your month long unrestricted free trial with no credit card required, go to freshbooks.com slash good life and enter the Good Life Project in the How Did You Hear About Us section. Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. If the stories and ideas in any way moved you, I would so appreciate if you would take just a few extra seconds for two quick things. One, if it's touched you in some way, if there's some idea or moment in the story or in the conversation that you really feel like you would share with somebody else, that it would make a difference in somebody else's lives, take a moment and whatever

app you're using, just share this episode with somebody who you think it'll make a difference for. Email it if that's the easiest thing, whatever is easiest for you. And then of course, if you're compelled, subscribe so that you can stay a part of this continuing experience. My greatest hope with this podcast is not just to produce moments and share stories and ideas that impact one person listening, but to let it create a conversation, to let it serve as a catalyst for the elevation of all of us together collectively, because that's how we rise. When stories and ideas become conversations that lead to action. That's when real change happens. And I would love to invite you to participate on that level.

Thank you so much as always for your intention, for your attention, for your heart. And I wish you only the best. I'm Jonathan Fields, signing off for Good Life Project. Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest-charging Apple Watch,

getting you eight hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series 10. Available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone Xs are later required. Charge time and actual results will vary.