by Kathy Mann
Perhaps you have heard of the 10-year rule or the 10,000 hours that are required to become a master at something. This is known as deliberate practice, a concept made famous by Anders Ericsson, a Swedish Psychologist who conducted significant research on the subject. He studied what makes people world-class in their area of expertise, be it violin, ballet or chess.
What is Deliberate Practice?
Deliberate practice is far more than simply spending the hours perfecting a skill. It also requires making small adjustments based on feedback, focussing on aspects of the skill that are not yet perfect and high repetition in the learning zone. In stretching towards a goal that is currently out of reach, deliberate practice is mentally demanding and requires intense concentration and focus. It is intentionally putting oneself in a position of struggle with the aim of mastery. In Geoff Colvin’s book, Talent is Overrated, he writes “struggle is not an option. It’s a biological requirement.”
This year has been a struggle for all of us in one way or another. Whether it’s the difficulty of home-schooling children while working full time or finding new markets and opportunities when COVID-19 closed the existing ones in our business. I have been inspired by many who have pivoted their business to take advantage of new customer needs this year, and others who have found new ways of offering their products and services to an international customer-base. I can’t say that I’ve been particularly savvy in response to the pandemic, but I have looked at my business through new eyes and there is value in that too.
We’ve all heard the adage that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but the research in deliberate practice disputes it. Research shows that a substance known as myelin grows around neural pathways in the brain when we engage in deliberate practice. If you were to dissect the brain of Tiger Woods or Venus Williams, certain neural pathways in their brains would contain actual thickening in brain matter along the circuits that pertain to their sport. It’s the equivalent of creating a multi-lane highway from a dirt road with focussed practice.
How to do it
As we have established, deliberate practice requires much dedication. First, pick a target. Find something you’d love to become outstanding at. It goes without saying that whatever you’d like to master should be something that fascinates you and would keep you interested as you develop.
Second, reach for it by engaging in deliberate practice. Identify small areas where you need to grow and work on them consciously for several hours a day if possible. Gaining feedback from a coach or expert in the field supports the learning. It’s difficult to see your own blind spots, especially if the improvements are tiny.
Part of the process is to evaluate the gap between your target and where you are now. It makes no sense to keep polishing areas where you are already good. Rather, deliberate practice is about focusing your energies on the gap between your target and your current abilities. This is where the growth lies. The process then repeats as you keep applying yourself incrementally.
In his book, Drive, Dan Pink writes that mastery is an asymptote, a graph where one gets infinitely closer to the target but never quite reaches it. Some could find this depressing, but I think this is great news. Imagine you actually reached your target, what then? Pink writes, “The joy is in the pursuit more than the realisation. In the end, mastery attracts precisely because mastery eludes.”
How can you apply deliberate practice?
I’ve applied this thinking to my yoga practice in the past, as it is a good example of something that is impossible to fully master. Each posture has many aspects to work on and in each class, I tried to stretch deeper towards the areas where I didn’t feel strong. It was fun to enjoy postures I was already quite good at, but it was a whole new experience to improve in one where I didn’t feel competent. Those little boosts are what keep you going towards perfection.
As a parent, I was encouraged by the books I read on deliberate practice to look for the spark of ignition. When your children show an interest in something – piano, karate or chess – foster that interest and encourage them by offering them opportunities to grow their skills. Who knows, maybe your child is the next Justin Bieber?
In my previous business, I made the mistake of taking on all roles in the organisation, spending time on accounting which drained my energy tremendously. This wasn’t enjoyable and I didn’t have the time to spend on the aspects of the business that were the most fun. Outsource parts of your business where you are not strong so that you can spend time on your strengths, intentionally polishing your skills and becoming a master of your domain. Using deliberate practice in this way will allow you to become even more impactful than you already are.
The concept of waiting ten years to see the fruits of our labour seems difficult to absorb when embarking on something new. However, it doesn’t need to take that long to become good at something. Research shows that the brain changes in as little as eight weeks with continued practice in activities such as meditation. If there’s something that you’d like to master, whether it relates to leisure or your business, why not embrace these principles in moving you closer to that goal? No-one can become a master overnight but you can become a stronger version of yourself and enjoy the feeling of improving along the way.
Kathy Mann is an author and speaker with a special interest in stress management. She is passionate about guiding people towards their best lives possible in harnessing their strengths and innate talents. She offers a stress re-framing service, which shifts beliefs to be more constructive around stress. She does this by educating her clients about the variety of stress responses that exist and how we can benefit from them. Kathy's books Avoiding Burnout and Harnessing Stress are available at major retailers and online at Amazon. She is a wife and mother of two beautiful daughters and lives in Johannesburg, South Africa.
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