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I think everyone has these three zones:

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their comfort zone, their learning zone,
and their panic zone.

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And I think our most defining moments
and our greatest lessons

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come when we take risks
to move from comfort into learning

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and maybe, to the edge of panic.

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Now, I'm on this stage
because I did not go to grad school.

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Instead, about five years ago,

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after working with middle school,
and high school students,

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when I was curious about the intersection
of for-profit and for-purpose businesses,

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I was almost going to go to a traditional
grad school to get a master's in business,

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but the costs were too high,
and the style didn't fit me.

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So, I decided I would try to design
my own education

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by doing twelve projects
in twelve months around the world.

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I would source these projects
by talking to companies in design,

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business and social change,

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and I would try to find
one project I could complete

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over the course of the month.

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I would fund my year
by creating a newsletter

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that my friends and family could
subscribe to, at ten dollars a month,

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and I would share my learnings
with them each month.

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Now, as I was travelling
to fulfill this idea,

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I had met all kinds of amazing people

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who started talking to me
about the ideas they had

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to learn in a different kind of way,
or to create change,

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to take leaps of their own.

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So, I created an invitation
for those people to send stories

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about the leaps and risks
they were taking to learn, grow,

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and create change in their communities.

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And I promised that if, at the end
of the year, I had enough stories,

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we would take those stories
and make a book.

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And at the end of the year,
sure enough, we created a book

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called The Leap Year Project,
of those stories,

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and this kind of became my dissertation.

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I also needed a place to graduate,
some way to end my year.

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And there was a TED Conference
happening in Chicago.

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So I put a cap and gown on,
and that was my graduation.

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And in 2013, after this was all over,
we launched a school,

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a place where people could come
and design their education

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through experiences
in their field of study.

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We called it the Experience Institute.

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I even got to meet Oprah. (Laughter)

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Now, this is pretty traditional:

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me trying to explain some sort
of audacious idea

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to someone who is much more
successful and powerful

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and really probably doesn't
actually care about what I'm saying.

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This is a good picture of that year.

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(Laughter)

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Now, that was one of the most
transformative years of my life.

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I learned about my industry,
the things I cared about,

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and about myself.

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And Experience Institute
has been my life's work,

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inviting people of all ages
to design their education

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through experience and mentorship.

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But I think those photos,
they are all beautiful,

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and they show energy and excitement.

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I think they only tell
one part of the story.

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Photos like this
help give another picture,

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when I was in Orange County,

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trying to find a place to stay,
not sure where I would stay,

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and finding a couch in a garage
of a friend of a friend,

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and having to sleep there for a while.

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And what you don't see
is the number of ants on that couch;

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(Laughter)

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or the motorcycle that would
start every morning at 6:30,

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and that would be my alarm;

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or downsizing most of my things,
getting rid of them, selling them,

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so I could afford the year,
and so I could stay light

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and carry nothing more than
just a couple of bags as I traveled;

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getting to the end of the year

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and realizing that writing a book,
prepping for a TED talk,

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and trying to start a school
is really overwhelming.

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Now, ever since Leap Year,

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I've been exploring the risk it takes
to move from comfort into learning,

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and the transformative impact it has
on an individual's life and career.

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What I never expected to find
was the role that panic plays in learning.

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It's the space where you come
face to face with your fears.

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and not just your fear's
bloated versions of those fears,

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things that don't even really exist.

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It's a part of learning that's necessary,
but it's rarely discussed.

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Now, for a second,
let's go back to those zones.

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There's an influential psychologist
named Lev Vygotsky.

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He talks about the zone
of proximal development.

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The comfort zone isn't necessarily
about your resources, what you have.

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It's about your abilities,
about not being challenged.

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You know what you know,

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and you're right in the middle
of what you know

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and, doing just that, there isn't
really a sense of challenge.

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In the learning zone, 
there is a challenge,

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but you don't have everything
you need to meet that challenge.

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You may have pieces of it,

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but you need other people
to help you piece those things together

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and if, you get that help, you'll succeed.

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and, if you don't get that help, you'll
zip right through to the panic zone.

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And the panic zone is where you feel
alone, overwhelmed, afraid.

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You've lost confidence here.

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You can't learn here.
You don't function well.

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This is the head-in-hands moment.

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And the only way to move back from panic

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is to have help to get
into the learning zone,

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but normally, we just want to shut down
and go all the way back to comfort.

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Now, learning is where our most
transformative moments happen:

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when we meet somebody
who is incredibly helpful,

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or when we overcome a challenge.

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If I were to ask you when you
learned your most valuable lessons,

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you would talk about a challenge,

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you would talk about someone
who helped you through that.

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But comfort isn't a bad thing.

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In fact, the goal of learning
is to expand the comfort zone,

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this is where we become more confident,
more comfortable as we move through life,

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whatever it throws at us,
and not getting to the panic zone.

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So, if that's the goal of learning,

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if what we're trying to do
is figure out how we can be people

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who are more confident
no matter what life throws at us,

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how do we expand the comfort zone?

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How do we push back the panic zone?

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Now, the grand paradox
is that the only way to expand comfort

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is by leaving it.

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So that's what we have to figure out,

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designing the leaps that move us
from comfort into learning,

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and when those leaps
are necessary in our lives.

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How do we make space for them in our
education systems and our workplaces?

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So I have three hunches.
It starts with discovery.

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Now, discovery is just a matter
of asking questions:

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the question you have,
as you move through the day,

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about how to make something better,

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about how to increase
the thing that gives you hope,

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one of those moments
that you want to improve something,

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make something, or change something.

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Those questions begin pushing you
to the edge of comfort,

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in trying to figure out what things
you might want to do next.

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Now, as those questions
and hopes surface,

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the thing that happens next
is you begin exploring:

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"What is it I could do? How do I learn?,"
and defining those projects.

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Now, for some people,
school is the risk they take,

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they move into that setting,

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but for others, the question is,
"Should I try to build something?

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Should I travel or do a research project?

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Or should I just try to work
with an expert in the field?"

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The more specific that project becomes,

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the more parameters,
the time frames, the deliverables,

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the more other people can
start seeing what you're doing

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and you can invite them into it,
which leads to the second thing,

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that you need to bring other people,

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you need to invite other
people into learning.

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It's not a solo project.

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There is going to be times
when you don't know what to do,

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and you're going to need
the help of others.

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During Leap Year, I found myself
not only needing companies

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to give me a chance to work with them,

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to learn with them
and to create with them;

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I needed my community
to guide me through times

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when I got stuck,
or to support me emotionally.

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This included everyone
from my own family, my mother,

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to mentors and friends.

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This photo, the story of this photo
isn't that I hit the panic zone.

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The story of this photo
is that someone took the photo.

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They were in the room with me, right?

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They were the people who walked me
back from the panic zone

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into the learning zone,

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and helped me finish
at the end of that year.

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Now, I think there is something
more to community

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than just emotional support.

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I think they become our audience,

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they become the people who validate
and celebrate the things we learn,

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which leads to the third hunch:
how do we share the projects we go into,

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the things we're learning and doing?

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For me, during Leap Year,

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it was nothing more than a weekly
blog post, monthly newsletter

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and, at the end of the year,
creating a book and a presentation,

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but for you, you don't need
a big book or a stage.

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What you need is
just regular checkpoints,

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places where people can
see what you're working on,

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can give you feedback
and can celebrate when you finish.

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Discover. Invite. Share.

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So, I didn't go to grad school,

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but I designed one of the most
transformative chapters of my life.

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My comfort zone expanded,

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but, maybe more importantly,

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I learned how to navigate
between comfort, into learning,

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and to push on the edge of panic.

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Now, 2016 is actually
another leap year,

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and I think in Portuguese
they call this "ano bissexto,"

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where there's an extra day,
and there is a title to the year.

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And we're curious:

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what would happen if people in 2016
decided to design a project of their own,

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to move between comfort into learning,
to design a leap, however big or small?

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And if we do,

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whether you're in high school,
or college, or in a workplace,

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whatever leap you take,
what would happen to learning?

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What would happen to the education space

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when we realize we can
create learning, we can design it,

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just by taking a few leaps?

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So, what leap will you take?

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(Applause)