Aristotle once said, “we are what we repeatedly do, excellence is not an act but a habit”. Practice is the foundation to growing in any facet of your life. If you are struggling with a subject in school, the only way to improve is to practice the subject more. If your business is failing to grow quarterly, then you need to implement new strategies and practices that will help you drive daily sales. If you are in a relationship that lacks communication, the only way to improve that area is to practice carving out time to communicate more on how you feel about each other and the relationship. It can be a sports, hobby or skill set, the only way for it to improve is by practicing. Practice makes permanent.
I’ve done research and found deliberate practice is one of the best methods for consistent growth. Coined by Anders Ericsson, deliberate practice refers to a special type of practice that is purposeful and systematic. While regular practice might include mindless repetitions, deliberate practice requires focused attention and is conducted with the specific goal of improving performance. Practicing with a purpose, while receiving feedback. We mistake movement with achievement. Our daily actions often do not lead to an outcome or result that we genuinely want. They say when you walk in purpose, you will collide with destiny.
In the book, “Practice Perfect”, by Doug Lemov, he explains forty-two rules for getting better at getting better. Here’s ten of the rules that stood out to me from the book that will help you grow in any area of your life.
- Encode success. Engineer practice activity so that the success rate is reliably high. Practice getting it right.
- Practice the 80/20 principle. Identify the 20 percent of things you could practice that will deliver 80 percent of the value.
- Unlock creativity with repetition. Automate skills to free others cognition to be more creative.
- Correct instead of critique. Feedback automatically helps people get better.
- Isolate the skill your trying to improve on. Focus on that one skill until you see improvement.
- Replace your purpose with an objective. Create measurable and manageable objectives and goals for your program daily.
- Make a plan. Plan with data driven objectives in mind and plan to adapt.
- Make each minute matter.
- Model and describe what to focus on.
- Let the mind follow the body. Learn skills to automaticity. Master your craft.
Practice equals progress. There’s a quote from the book by Dan Heath that exemplifies the value of practice. “The enemies of practice are pride, fear and self-satisfaction”. To practice requires humility. It forces us to admit that we don’t know everything. To practice isn’t to declare, ‘I’m bad.’ To practice is to declare, ‘I can be better.” When you fall in love with practicing, you have opened the door to discovering your passion, which can lead you to finding your life purpose.
Quote of the Day: “Deliberate practice equals progress.”