Achieve Excellence While Reducing Effort

“I’m ALREADY trying hard!”
Common approaches to learning—academics and athletics, especially—link effort with success. Struggling and special needs learners often conclude, “Something must be wrong with me; I know I tried.” Some stop trying, but they don’t need to. The amount of effort required is neither an indicator of something wrong with the learner, nor a predictor of a learner’s success. Effort often means, simply: “I’m not an expert yet.” How can we become expert learners, so we can learn with ease—and help our struggling and special needs learners do likewise?