How to improve in any skill and achieve great things

Several times in life we decide to learn something new. It might be picking up a new hobby or upskilling ourselves to get a promotion. The usual approach to learning any new skill is to know what you want, get some instructions on how to do it, practice until you achieve an acceptable level, and allow the skill to become automatic. That’s exactly what I used to do. Some aspects of newly learnt skill weren’t perfect, yet the mistakes didn’t happen often and since the new activity was fun I never did anything to improve. I wrongly assumed that if I repeat an activity I will get better over time. When I read a book by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool “Peak. How all of us can achieve extraordinary things.” I’ve learnt that what I was actually doing was repeating the same thing all over again including my mistakes and shortfalls.

The authors of the book offer a structured way to improve in any skill and define it as “purposeful practice”, highlighting a few of its characteristics:

• “Purposeful practice has well-defined, specific goals. It is all about putting a bunch of baby steps together to reach a longer-term goal.
• Purposeful practice is focused.
• Purposeful practice involves feedback.
• Purposeful practice requires getting out of one’s comfort zone.”

Becoming better requires constant work, that’s why a lot of people settle for good enough and don’t trouble with putting in additional effort to go above and beyond. To get out of the comfort zone you need to push yourself for long enough, so the body or mind can adjust to the new norm. Your body craves for homeostasis, thus if you consistently challenge it, it will start to adapt until what was challenging becomes a new comfort zone. It’s easy to see it on the example of working out: what you find difficult when you start your fitness journey over time turns into a warm-up.

If you stop training physical and cognitive changes will deteriorate. However, if your goal is to excel and develop expertise introduce practise that is purposeful, informed, and guided. This is what I do now whenever I want to improve in something. I identify the experts, research what they did to separate themselves from others, what training they went through and what characteristics they possess. I cross-check that against my level and find a way to measure it to assess if I am making a progress. Breaking down the skill into elements that can be repeated and analysed effectively, figuring out my shortfalls, and incorporating strategies to address them is sometimes challenging, especially when comes to soft skills. Nevertheless, the whole purpose of the repetition of the task is to identify a weakness and take action to improve it.

Supposing that you decide to look for external help: coach, instructor, teacher to help you move to the next level. As per Ericsson and Pool look for reviews on how much progress the students made. If possible, talk with the teacher’s students – the former and current ones. Choose the ones that started at the approximately same level as you are now so you can see how much they improved. Ensure that the coach not only gives you tasks to perform but also guides you through your practice, what you are looking for is a person that can provide constant feedback.

With or without outside help, if you wish to sustain a practice over an extended period of time create habits around it. These habits should simultaneously support you in maintaining desired behaviour and in reducing threats that can jeopardise achieving your goals. Your motivation will play a crucial role in keeping up with your practise. There are few reasons that strengthen your motivation listed by Ericsson and Pool which I fully agree with:

• Seeing results can become motivation itself - receiving compliments from your teacher or friends increase your pride in what you do and allows you to notice that the hard work has started to pay off.
• A belief that you can succeed – this belief will be most needed when you feel like quitting. If you regressed make an agreement with yourself that you will continue till you reach where you were and only then you can quit, most probably you won’t.
• Surround yourself with the right people – choose people who support you, who will be able to boost your confidence and keep you on track when you encounter setbacks.
• Set your practice in a way you see signs of improvement – create small goals and focus on one at a time to create the feeling of constant progress.

Additionally, eliminate all possible distractions and create dedicated time and space for your practice. Sometimes it is difficult to motivate yourself, therefore if you have other tasks you think you need to accomplish it will be that much harder to focus on the practise. Identify all distractions and minimise their influence, even if it means locking your phone in the drawer and handing over the key to a family member so you are not tempted to look.

It is very common to assign talent only after the fact – once someone has become an overnight success”. We seldom look into how much work and effort goes into mastering the skill before the final outcome. The recommendations from the book helped me to create a more structured approach to my own development and allowed me to become more efficient in my practice. Sometimes how you are practicing requires only a little bit of adjustment for you to excel.

What is your approach to mastering a new skill?