“The key factor separating geniuses
from the merely accomplished is not a divine spark. It's not I.Q. Instead, it's
deliberate practice. Top performers spend more hours (many more hours)
rigorously practicing their craft.”—David Brooks
It is almost
impossible to see a valedictorian in any reputable institution of learning who
didn’t go the extra-mile. For the most part, that special class of distinction
comes to him or her as a result dedication and deliberately application. Every
scholar attains the honour of scholarship largely due to devotion and
concentration.
Likewise, becoming
super successful in business would imply that you (as an entrepreneur) are far better
than your competition in terms of the value you bring to the marketplace. This
invariably requires some skill and unique competence. And that exceptional skill rarely comes by
chance, mostly; it comes as a result of devotion and dedication to be the best
in the game. On this, Eric Butterworth the author of “Spiritual Economics” contends:
“Behind every brilliant performance there were countless hours of practice and
preparation.”
Having highlighted
the necessity of practice for high achievement, I still want to stress one
important thing right now: an ultimate buff commits to practice far more deeply
than others in the same field of study. And that’s why in the realm of uncommon
merit, even legion of masters usually do have a grand master. That is, among
first class students, one super-brilliant student usually stands above all
others. And among blue-chip companies, one company usually stands taller than the
rest.
What I am getting
at and what we want to examine today is the key secret of the most extra-ordinary
performers in useful endavours of life. In other words, we want to learn how we
can improve our own practice to join some of the very best in our special areas
of interest. Kevin Maney, the author of “Trade-off” gets this and he writes:
“Some
people seem to have extreme natural wiring - a talent that seems to come out of
nowhere. Like a music savant or prodigy. The uplifting news, though, is that
many talented people don't have such natural wiring - but
they forge a talent through thousands of hours of what's known as deliberate
practice or deliberate performance.” This powerful skill is what
we shall be studying shortly, and it is technically called: deliberate
practice.
Deliberate Practice
What mainly differentiates self-made experts
from the rest of us is nothing but committed, deliberate effort to improve
functionality—relentlessly. On this intriguing subject, an American professor
of psychology, Anders Ericsson, after decades of research wrote a book on the
secret of peak performance, entitled, “Peak.” In the book, he reveals that as
important as practice is to getting better at anything, he asserts that, it is not
mere practice that moves aficionados to mastery and perfection but better
practice is what does.
In other words, how they practice is the real
secret to their mastery, not just the hours they invested. According to
Ericsson, they practiced with greater presence, more intensity, sharper focus
and clearer sense of objective than many of their counterparts. And that’s why they
are singularly better than the rest; they thoroughly employ the tactic of deliberate
practice.
Consider this: many of us have been typing letters
on the computers for quite a long period of time, but we are hardly
professional typists, are we? In fact, some professional typists are not
necessarily some of the best in their chosen business because, they are not really
improving. They are only putting in the time. They are not deliberate enough in
their quest to getting better.
The above scenario is what the famous
basketball player; Micheal Jordan was referring at one time. He said:
“You can
practice shooting eight hours a day, but if your technique is wrong, then all
you become is very good at shooting the wrong way. Get
the fundamentals down (right) and the level of everything you do will rise.”
So now, since we know that practice is
different from deliberate practice. Then what exactly is deliberate practice?
Simply put, it means practicing, rehearsing or
working for growth with a clearly defined improvement goal in mind.
And the
simple litmus test for the effectiveness of this self-training is that after
your practice session; ask yourself whether you have achieved your predetermined
objective or not. If you haven’t, you have merely put in the time, and yes, you
may have practiced, but you have clearly not done it thoroughly—deliberately
enough.
Practical
Example on Writing Well:
As a writer, you should set a goal for the month
to learn and master a specific fundamental of your craft. Choose one: like a
specific style or a particular punctuation. Mind you, it is easy to write for
years without mastering this fundamental element of professional writing, and
still consider yourself a careful writer.
However, when rubber meets the road and you
face the assessment of real pros, you will suddenly be convinced that you are merely
a quack, an amateur and a dilettante. To be an authentic expert, you MUST learn
and do what the true masters learn and do; there is simply no way around it.
The finest in the world have neither two
heads nor anything supernatural, they have only learnt the key to becoming outstanding
at what they do best. And that key is deliberate practice: thorough practice. It
is the very essence of genius in all calling of value.
Finally, it can be quite tempting for
us to rest on our laurels, never opting for the discomfort of growth. But if we
strive to move out of our comfort zone and commit to deliberate practice, even
if it means we have to risk and redefine failure on our own journey towards
mastery. We can experience the fringe rewards reserved for the truly exceptional
masters of their crafts as described by the American writer, Julia McNair
Wright. She concludes that: "Reaching toward perfection in any one thing
should lift us higher in all things; it
should beget a habit of application and thoroughness."
No comments:
Post a Comment