Deliberate Practice

It’s hard

Image created by the author. Copyright The 4610 Project, Inc.

Everyone wants an easy button.

However they don’t exist, at least not for things worth doing. This is especially true for the process of becoming an expert, or reaching a high level of proficiency in any profession or talent. To reach that level, you have to spend an abundant amount of time practicing.

And it’s not just doing it. There’s a method to it. It’s called deliberate practice.

Deliberate practice requires repetitive practice with feedback and improvement, usually in conjunction with an expert coach. Otherwise you’re, at worst, wasting your time, and at best, only enjoying a hobby.

Resistance

One of the biggest obstacles to diligent practice is getting started in each practice session. Deliberate practice involves a lot of mistakes and doing things wrong, a lot. And often these repetitive exercises are boing. And then, when you finally get them right you progress to a more difficult level, and start all over making mistakes again.

This is unpleasant. And because it’s unpleasant, you don’t want to do it, at least initially. Your mind creates all sorts of excuses not to practice.

The trick for overcoming resistance is to constantly remind yourself that the resistance only lasts for a short while, about…