Learning the Hard Way Vol 7: Deliberate Practice

Practice.

Practice.

We're talking about practice.

What makes you get good at something?

Is it repetition?

Is it having a good coach?

Lots of knowledge?

Accurate feedback?

Effort?

Attention to detail?

The right mindset?

10,000 hours of practice?

Yes.

All of the above and more.

But let's zoom out for a second.

Why practice at all?

Why not just "Take Action?"

The reason I made this course is that there are 3 types of learning that people do.

One type is that you read a bunch of stuff, synthesize it and you need to memorize it for a test. Or you just want to have access to a large body of knowledge. You want to know a lot of facts but not necessarily do a lot with them.

It's like having access to a big database in your head. But that's it.

That's the first kind. 

And that's what mnemonic (memory) techniques are great for. Building up a knowledge base like that.

Ok, now the second type.

This is what Taking Action was built for.

How do you turn your learning into a final knowledge "product"....something you can use that is actionable?

Meaning not just knowing a bunch of facts, but having them organized.

Like a checklist.

Or a one page project plan.

Or even a Gantt chart or other calendar system.

The idea is to create a plan where you build something once, you don't necessarily need to have much information memorized, but you do need to have it organized into an actionable plan.

That's the second type.

Now the third type. 

And the reason for this course.

Sometimes you need what I call "Evergreen Skills."

These are skills you will use for the rest of your life...or at least the rest of your career.

We are talking about years and decades. Not just individual tasks or projects.

These skills usually require that you can act with confidence, in the moment, with minimal or no preparation and perform at a high level.

Here's an example.

You need to set up a website, simple one, for your side business. 

How do you do that?

Do you now become an expert at web design and architecture?

Or do you get a course (or a book), create a to do list, and then get the site up and running in an afternoon?

Probably the latter.

If you wanted to learn to play the guitar, it would be different.

You don't create a checklist and then bang it out in an afternoon.

You "bang it out" over a year or two or five.

The difference, you might say, is muscle memory, but it's deeper than that.

Whether you are learning a physical skill, or an intellectual skills (think public speaking for example, or sales), you have to get repetitions to get good at a skill.

To be successful in your career, you need to balance these 3 types of learning.

Sometimes you need a new database in your head.

Sometimes you need a checklist and to just get something done once...and then file it away and forget about it.

Sometimes you need to build a new skill. 

That's what this course is about.

Skill building is the biggest time investment of any of the 3 types of learning.

So it's really important that you are doing it the right way.

You can waste YEARS of your life by practicing the wrong way.

Take this course, and find out how you can maximize your practice time so that you can get skilled up as quickly as possible.

-Timothy