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140 Power Up Your Mind

have a strategy for coping with it. This is equally true whether you
are completing an MBA, learning how to put together a new piece
of furniture, or coaching a local children’s football team. Whatever
the learning, there will be moments when you get stuck. You will
feel frustration, anger, even despair. It is at these moments that you
need some good coping strategies.
Intelligence, as Jean Piaget said many years ago, is “knowing
what to do when you don’t know what to do.”
You probably know the popular television game show in the
UK—exported to the US and other countries—called Who Wants to
Be a Millionaire? Contestants are tested on their knowledge and
each time they answer a question correctly, the prize money dou-
bles until it reaches the magic figure of one million. As you can
imagine, the atmosphere becomes more and more tense as the show
progresses. It is, in fact, a good example of learning under pressure.
If contestants are stuck, they can get help by telephoning a friend,
asking the audience, or going 50:50, reducing the possibilities to
two of the four options. The first two strategies involve getting sup-
port from someone else, while the third reduces the odds somewhat.
It is still up to the contestant to reject or accept the advice they get,
but the problem has been shared.
There are some useful tips for the lifelong learner here! When
you get stuck you need to have good strategies for sticking with the
problem. As the saying goes, there is no gain without pain. And this
is equally true for learning.
The Swedish company Celemi lists “competence-enhancing
customers” as one of the measurements on its Intangible Assets
Monitor under the heading “Our people.” The implication is quite
clear. If your staff have lived through a difficult and challenging
assignment with a client, they will be the stronger for it.

10 things to do when learning gets difficult

1 Stop what you are doing and have a complete break.
2 Think back to what you did the last time you got stuck like this.
3 Make a map or list in which you outline what your options are.
4 Talk to a friend about it to ask them what they would do.