“The concept of deliberate practice, advanced by Anders Ericsson and his colleagues and since investigated by many other researchers, is quite specific. It isn’t work and isn’t play, but something entirely unto itself,” explains Geoff Colvin, author of Talent is Overrated.
According to Colvin, deliberate practice is characterized by several elements:
- · It’s designed by a teacher or mentor specifically to improve performance. It works because of “his or her ability to see you in ways that you cannot see yourself.”
- · It can be repeated a lot. The key to deliberate practice is focusing on an extremely difficult task, like hitting a golf ball buried in the sand over and over again.
- · Feedback on results is continuously available. As Colvin points out, “you may believe you played that bar of the Brahms Violin Concerto perfectly, but can you really trust your own judgment?”
- · It’s highly demanding mentally. In fact, “the work is so great that it seems no one can sustain it for very long” – on average ninety minutes.
- · It isn’t much fun. “Doing things we know how to do well is enjoyable, and that’ exactly the opposite of what deliberate practice demands. Instead of doing what we’re good at, we insistently seek out what we’re not good at.”
When deliberate practice is working, it changes us, argues Colvin. People who practice deliberately excel at the following:
- · They understand the significance of indicators that average performers don’t even notice.
- · They look further ahead, maintaining a long-term vision of their future.
- · They know more from seeing less.
- · They make finer discriminations than average performers.
In Talent is Overrated, Colvin convincingly argues that you need not be an athlete or a musician to apply the principles of deliberate practice to your life. I’m sure it’ll come as no surprise that the example that resonated most with me was that of Benjamin Franklin, “America’s first great man of letters.” Although I was familiar with Franklin’s methods for improving his writing, viewing them through the disciplined practice lens transformed them.
Franklin studied a bound volume of the Spectator, a respected English periodical written by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, taking copious notes. Days later, he’d rewrite the essays in his own words, comparing his version with the original in order to determine where he could improve. Franklin even went so far as to turn the essays into poetic verse. As a writing teacher what’s perhaps most significant to me is the fact that “he did not try to become a better essay writer by sitting down and writing essays.”
Therefore, when trying to improve performance, Colvin suggests you set goals that are not about the outcome but about the process of reaching the outcome. n: yes;”> Then, observe yourself closely; pay close attention to your thought process while performing the task. Finally, push yourself appropriately. Stop believing your errors were the result of your opponents luck or the difficulty of the task; rather, take responsibility for your mistakes.
For according to Colvin, “great performance is not reserved for a preordained few. It is available to you and to everyone.” So long as you’re willing to practice deliberately.
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