“The difference between ordinary
and extraordinary is (deliberate) practice.”_Vladimir Horowitz
Practice births mastery.
I have learned that there is a science
behind mastery and acquisition of skills; it is a concept known in the world of peak
performance as deliberate practice.
For starter, let’s talk about what the
concept entails?
Basically, deliberate practice (or
methodical practice) is an art of doing something conscientiously and
systematically for the purpose of getting better.
It’s the tool that we need to become
proficient at any skill, no matter the level of our innate talent as a Swedish
psychologist, K. Anders Ericsson explains to us on the function of deliberate practice
in the acquisition of expertise.
He makes clear in the following
sentence that the technique of deliberate practice is the ultimate difference
maker in the acquisition of real skill.
His exact words go as follows: “The
differences between expert performers and normal adults are not immutable, that
is, due to genetically prescribed talent. Instead, these differences reflect a
life-long period of deliberate effort to improve performance.”
With the good news that mastery is not
just a gift endowed only to prodigies, we need to realize that deliberate
practice is not what we do in just a dozen of times to achieve excellence,
rather; it is what we do again and again without end.
However, to be clear, deliberate
practice is not the same with rote learning or mindless repetitions; it’s all
about conscientious rehearsals that actually lead to real improvements.
You see, experts are not experts
because of their superhuman abilities; experts are experts because they are
committed to relentless practice to improve their skills and knowledge.
That is to say, mastery is less about
what we are gifted with at birth. It's more
about how committed we’re to keep getting better at our craft.
Now, let’s get clearer on how you can
make the most of your own practice sessions.
Three Critical Success Factors
of Deliberate Practice
We are going to extract three
essential factors of Deliberate Practice from Malcolm Gladwell, the author of the
bestselling book, ‘Outliers: The Story of Success.’
He highlighted these three factors in
the following single sentence:
“Practice must be focused, determined and in an
environment where there’s feedback.”
As you can see, the first factor means
that each practice must be narrowed to down to a specific element of the skill
in view. Since we can’t master everything at once; we therefore need to home in
on a specific target, one step at a time.
The second critical factor of
deliberate practice means we must be determined to put in the work regularly
until we achieve our focused objectives; we can’t dabble our way to mastery.
Excellence demands commitment.
And lastly, the third indispensable factor
of skill acquisition is that there must be feedbacks on every session to
accurate assess the effectiveness of our practice.
Certainly, feedbacks are important. Without
them; we may never make significant improvements toward the class of excellence.
Furthermore, to maximize our potential
through the tool of deliberate practice, we need to keep challenging ourselves
by improving on our strengths and devising means to address any area of
fundamental weakness in our learning.
Incidentally, apart from the direct
gains in expertise that we will obtain with deliberate practice, there’s an
amazing windfall. As our skills improve, we experience a quantum increase in
confidence and self-esteem: a wonderful byproduct of deliberate practice.
Finally, realize that the most
important difference between top performers and lowly amateurs is nothing but a
good volume of deliberate practice.
