Episode 37 - Smart People Problems - Being Underchallenged

This week, I dive into something that plagues many smart humans: being chronically under-challenged.

I explain what it means to be underchallenged - and what you can do about it.

You'll learn about the comfort, growth and terror zones, and how to identify which one you're operating in.

And I'll help you do an inventory of different areas of your life to find out where you're under-challenging yourself.

Last but not least I give you lots of ideas on how to gently start challenging yourself in constructive AND fun ways.

Your smart mind deserves to be stretched and challenged, and so do you.

So give it what it needs.

You can download a PDF with zoning diagrams via this link. 

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Transcript

Episode 37 - Being Underchallenged

Welcome to this episode of the managing the smart mind podcast with Master Certified Coach Else Kramer, a.k.a. Coach Kramer. 

Today’s ‘smart people problem’ may sound a bit like ‘nice to have’.

But a life without any true challenges gets boring very quickly - and if you’ve listened to the episode on Boreout you know how bad that is for your well-being and health. 

I think a perfect illustration of this is Marvin the Paranoid Android from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (which, btw you must read if you haven’t yet). He’s utterly depressed because he has this massive brain and basically all he’s asked to do is open doors. 

Like Marvin, most smart people I meet are chronically underchallenged. 

Underchallenged at school.

Underchallenged at university.

Underchallenged at work. 

Underchallenged at life. 

OK, you may be wondering, but what does it mean to be underchallenged? 

What if you’re LIKE not doing scary things all the time? What if you’re ‘quite comfortable with your life thanks very much’?

Well of course you get to decide…here is MY definition. 

You’re underchallenged if you don’t grow over a longer period of time. 

That’s it. 

That’s the simple version anyhow.

Comfort zone vs. Growth zone vs. Terror zone

And you have probably heard of the importance of going outside your comfort zone so you can grow - well that is what this is all about. 

I wish I could show you a picture, but as this is a podcast I’ll have to sketch it for you (and I’ll include it in the show notes): 

Imagine a large rectangle, with inside it a circle, and within that circle, another, smaller circle. 

Inside the smallest circle imagine a happy face. 

Got it? 

That’s your comfort zone. 

That’s all the things you can do without massive stress (doesn’t mean they’re all easy or fun by the way). The things you can do on autopilot or at least things that don’t make your brain freak out. 

This is a lovely place to be (and overachievers listening to this could probably benefit from spending a bit more time here). 

But. 

Being in your comfort zone 90% of the time or more tends to lead to massive dissatisfaction. 

I think it’s because we as humans, especially us smart, curious humans, have an innate desire, even a need to evolve. 

To grow. 

So you also want to spend some time in the circle outside your comfort zone - your GROWTH zone. 

This is where you do the stuff that is challenging. 

Things that don’t come easy or naturally to you. Including stuff that you can’t bypass with your smart mind, like learning a craft or a martial art for example. 

So going back to our visual, we have these two circles sitting in a rectangle, and that’s just not to provide a nice frame. 

There is a third space available to you, outside your growth zone. 

Most people don’t realise this, but if you make challenges so big that they terrify you, that they activate your fight/freeze/flight response, then you’ve actually moved outside your growth zone…into…the terror zone.

Yup. The terror zone. 

The zone where you try and do stuff whilst being terrified, massively anxious, etc. 

Not a very productive or fun place to be, yet a very familiar place I think, again, for the overachievers amongst us. 

If you keep setting massive goals and then doing nothing at all about it you’re probably catapulting yourself straight into your terror zone and the paralysis that tends to come with it. 

Good to know, right? In that case, you may want to adjust your goal, or break it up, so that it lands you in the growth zone instead. 

Now of course this is a very simplified picture because these zones are different for different areas of your life. 

If you’re able to, now is a good time to get out a piece of paper and coloured pens and draw a couple of versions of our original picture, the rectangle with the circles. 

Give them different colours, and name them for different aspects of life.

For example: relationships, money, career, fun & entertainment, love & romance, learning, health & fitness, spirituality, contribution, etc. (Again, go to the show notes if you’d like a done-for-you version of this). 

Now you can look at these different areas and ask yourself: 

‘Am I mostly comfortable in this one area? Do I spend time growing? Or am I mainly terrorised?’ 

And, once you know,  what do you think about that? 

For example, for me, when I look at my relationship/social zones I have been a bit complacent. 

Covid helped me justify my natural proclivity for social isolation - which means I haven’t been out much or made many new friends over the past couple of years. 

I’ve been sitting in my comfort zone - and that was fine for a while, but right now it is time for me to get into my growth zone again. So I’ve been signing up for activities where I can meet other people, etc. 

But when I look at my business I spend a lot of time in the growth zone. So I’m definitely not under-challenged there - probably no need for adjustment. 

You can do a similar inventory of the different areas of your life to get an idea of where you are under-challenged and where you would like to grow. 

But before I give you more specific advice on that, let’s first look at two coping strategies that smart people use when they’re under-challenged. 

Coping strategies for the chronically under-challenged

1. Keeping it ‘interesting’ by doing things in less time

The first one is winging it. Kind of checking out - only doing the minimum required. 

Doing less so you get to spend more time doing other things (like watching Netflix). 

The second one is the opposite: it’s trying to fix the boredom by doing more. By stacking tasks. 

This is you if you’ve noticed that you usually get away with doing the minimum amount of work required - and, often to your own astonishment, still receive praise. 

The presentation you hashed together at the last minute.

The paper crammed for in an all-nighter.

The client proposal that drafted whilst watching Netflix. 

Not only do you get away with it - you even get appreciation. 

This can create a massive disconnect between them and their environment, whether it’s at school, university or work. 

And for some people this results in habitual slacking…a kind of race to the bottom: how little can I do and still get away with? 

2. Keeping interesting by doing more in the same amount of time

Some people try to fix their being under-challenged by doing the opposite: they simple cram more things into the time they have. 

They take on extra duties, positions, volunteer, etc. 

They help colleagues with projects, care for cats at the local shelter, or bake brownies for that school thing. 

Which is all very nice - but, just like the slacking strategy, it doesn’t solve the root problem of being underchallenged. 

It just keeps you occupied and exhausted enough so you don’t notice. 

And it actually increases the risk of adding burnout to your impending bore-out. 

Whichever camp you’re in, slacking to the bottom or taking on more, neither extreme works. 

It doesn’t solve the problem of being under-challenged. 

So what does? 

How to solve being under-challenged

Well, first off, the only person who can solve your being underchallenged is…you. 

This is the responsibility that comes with the gift of having a smart mind. 

The odds that someone is going to create those challenges for you are pretty low (and if you have met that amazing teacher, mentor, or manager that helped you grow: congratulations! Be incredibly grateful and try to do the same for your smart peers if you can). 

YOU need to take responsibility for being under-challenged. 

And you need to start thinking how you can change it.

Now a quick note for those of you who have gifted children. They will probably need your help in creating challenges for their smart mind - more about that in later episodes for parents of smart kids. 

So how do you challenge your smart mind? 

As said before, it’s not trying to cram more of the same into less time. 

It also isn’t deciding to climb Mount Everest if you’ve never walked up a mountain in your life. That is just madness and will land you straight in the terror zone.

It lies in the beautiful, messy middle of nudging yourself towards doing something that feels pretty uncomfortable, but doesn’t completely freak you out. 

But first, you need to figure out the borders of your comfort zone. 

And you can easily do this by using your emotions as a ‘comfort-gauge’. 

Think about something you’re currently doing that causes you zero stress. 

Let’s say that lands you in the green on the comfort-gauge. 

Now think of something in the same arena that terrifies you. That would send you straight to the red on your comfort-gauge. 

For example: managing your current projects at work is maybe a little bit stressful because of time constraint and the political landscape, but in itself it doesn’t really challenge you. You’re in the green. 

Now imagine doing something pretty radical, like quitting your job, or going straight to the CEO and proposing a complete overhaul of all the systems and processes. That could send you to the red, your terror zone. 

You want to find something in between. 

It could be a project at work that requires you to learn new skills and take risks you usually avoid. 

It could be a side hustle or a new hobby that you can’t simply hack your way into with your smart mind. 

Most smart humans quickly figure out what is required of them to be successful in a certain situation - and how to easily fulfil those requirements. 

You want to create a situation where either the requirements are vague, or you can’t easily fulfil them - or both. 

This by the way reminds me of my master coach training, where our instructors were intentionally vague about requirements. Which caused several of my peers to have massive freakouts. 

If you don’t know what you’re going to be graded on, you just have to be pretty fucking awesome - and step into your own authority. Can you do that? 

As for requirements that aren’t easily fulfilled or bypassed by a fast brain: this is where you can consider activities or sports that simply take a lot of practice. 

Playing a musical instrument. 

Martial arts.

Sports (there is a reason so many smart people run marathons). 

Visual arts. 

You can’t hack your way to playing cello concertos - you will have to put in lots of practice. 

You want to commit to doing something that is going to leave you frustrated, stretched, challenged - and ultimately extremely proud and fulfilled. 

On a day-to-day basis these can be challenging puzzles, personal encounters, practices, etc. 

In the longer term, think major projects like building a business, writing a book, making a fun new career move. 

And the good news is: the more you practice this, the easier this gets (just like running, drawing, playing the piano). 

Not just because you get the fun dopamine hits of all the small improvements (although those are very nice too, thank you very much). 

It’s because you build resilience. 

You learn to move through failure, discomfort, all the things that come with being outside your comfort zone. 

And you will start to feel incredibly alive and fulfilled. 

So how do you go about this? 

First, do an honest inventory. 

Look at the different areas of your life. 

Where are you currently not being challenged enough? 

And then get ready for part two - the fun part. 

Start designing your own challenges. 

Turn it into a game where you get to level-up if that helps. 

How can you grow when it comes to your relationships? 

What about the way you spend your free time? What would be a fun challenge there?

Do you need a money challenge? 

Is your brain very underused and does it need some extremely hard math puzzles to make it come alive? 

What about your body? Are you challenging yourself enough there (although here I’d like to stress to always do it with kindness). 

What would be fun when it comes to fitness? 

Would you like to be able to do cartwheels? Run 10K? Cut through blocks with your bare hands? 

Spend some time dreaming up all the ways and areas in which you can start challenging yourself (remember, you don’t want to be in the RED zone, you want to be in the orange stretch zone), and then, to prevent overwhelm (hello my overachievers), simply pick one. 

The one that calls to you, that feels irresistible. 

And accept the challenge. 

Commit, don’t give up until it’s done (if you need some help setting a clear-cut challenge check out the Episodes on Goal setting). 

And then notice how you feel. 

Much better, right? 

Your smart mind deserves to be stretched and challenged, and so do you.

So give it what it needs. 

Wishing you a week in which you get to stretch yourself in the best possible way, 

Else a.k.a. Coach Kramer

Want to learn how to build a life in which you are stretched in the best possible way? Then work with me. DM me on LinkedIn, Instagram or Facebook to learn how you can work with me, or email me via podcast@elsekramer.com. 

Thank you for listening to the Managing the Smart Mind Podcast, I love that at 

the time of recording this there are smart humans listening in 79 countries! I really appreciate you - do send me any questions or requests for topics you have. And if you enjoy the podcast I’d love for you to give it a five-star review so other smart humans can find it - thank you!