This TED Talk features entrepreneur Eduardo Briseño, recorded live at TEDx Manhattan Beach, 2016.

Most of us go through life trying to do our best at whatever we do, whether it's our job,

family, school, or anything else.

I feel that way. I try my best.

But some time ago, I came to a realization that I wasn't getting much better at the things

I cared most about, whether it was being a husband or a friend or a professional

or teammate. And I wasn't improving much at those things, even though I was spending a lot of

time working hard at them. I've since realized from conversations I've had and from research

that this stagnation, despite hard work, turns out to be pretty common.

So I'd like to share with you some insights into why that is

and what we can all do about it.

What I've learned is that the most effective people

and teams in any domain do something we can all emulate.

They go through life deliberately alternating

between two zones, the learning zone and the performance zone.

The learning zone is when our goals to improve.

Then, we do activities designed for improvement,

concentrating on what we haven't mastered yet,

which means we have to expect to make mistakes,

knowing that we will learn from them.

That is very different from what we do

when we're in our performance zone,

...