Why Struggle is the Success
We’ve all struggled, but that capacity to struggle can be the defining factor of success and growth.
Typically, we often opt for the easy route.
Asking easy questions that usually yield comfortable, but superficial and impact-less answers. It turns out, that it’s the deeper, harder, more challenging questions – and our response to the struggle they entail – that truly catalyzes growth and learning. Up to 450% improvement in one case.
In 1979, University of Michigan graduate student, Jim Stigler, was in Japan studying their learning style and how it compared to his U.S. educational knowledge. He found that in many Western contexts, struggle is often seen as an indication of inability – by others, but also by ourselves. So there’s a natural tendency to focus on easy questions and immediate and simple, achievable tasks to preserve our own self image. These questions are like the shallow end of the pool – safe and familiar, but limiting in depth and potential.
In Japan, Stigler realized that something else was happening. They saw struggle not as a sign of weakness, but as a necessary and even invited part of learning. When one student struggled with a problem, the teacher didn’t shield them from the challenge, but rather encouraged them to face it publicly in the front of the room. That idea might leave you squeamish hearing about it. But the students’ eventual success became not just their triumph, but a lesson for the entire class about the value of perseverance and struggle in the learning process.
Those hard questions are actually what makes the difference. Not the answers themselves. In a different, more anecdotal situation with a student, that consistent struggle improved standardized test results by 450%! Not to mention, leaving those with this approach more likely to get to more meaningful and impactful answers because they work on problems longer…
The struggle is what forces our brain to contend with beliefs, values, abilities and current knowledge to foster growth to learn more. It’s an uncomfortable process because it requires not only intellectual effort, but emotional resilience. As Stigler observed, academic excellence (and I would add any excellence and growth) is a result of persistent effort and struggle, not just innate information.
To truly grow and learn, we have to embrace that struggle. Letting go of having the answers, and instead, embracing the inquiry, however painful it may be. The struggle is real. But it’s also a key to growth.
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The pathway to meaningful answers that make a difference and authentic growth often lies in the hard questions, it lies in the struggle. Embracing challenges in this way, we open ourselves to deeper learning and transformative growth, just like Stigler saw in those Japanese classrooms.
Maybe the lesson for all of us is clear: The struggle with hard questions is more important than the answers themselves.
The struggle is the success.
