We’ve all heard the advice to “get out of your comfort zone” by taking on a new challenge. A recent study goes a step further: Make discomfort a direct goal. That’s more likely to motivate you     1     if you only focus on what you hope to learn.

In the first of five experiments, the researchers assigned several hundred students training at Second City Chicago     2    (participate) in a small-group improvisation(即兴) exercise, and then instructed half of the group that their goal during the session was “to feel awkward and uncomfortable.” The rest,     3    (that) in the control group,     4    (tell) to “feel yourself developing new skills.” Members of the first group kept at the exercise longer than the others did and took     5    (great) risks.

Experiments     6    (involve) other dimensions of personal growth—engaging in expressive writing, learning about gun violence, and hearing about opposing political     7    (belief)—produced similar results.

Reframing anxiety as excitement has been proven a way to improve singing in front of strangers, and thinking of stress as     8     means to boost achievement demonstrated a stress-management technique.

“When people reinterpret negative experiences as     9    (function), they are more willing to engage in tasks that call forth those experiences,” the researchers explain. “Instead of seeing discomfort as unrelated to the goal     10     a signal to stop, they will start perceiving it as a sign of progress toward their goal.”