By Kyler Bush
Introduction
“Practice isn't the thing you do once you're good. It's the thing you do that makes you good” – Malcolm Gladwell
Success is like an iceberg - most people only see the very tip of what is an otherwise enormous endeavor. Situated above the water are the shiny medals, impressive accolades, and media attention that everyone sees; but below the water, lies a much more profound story. A story rooted in hours and hours of practice.
No matter who you are or what domain you work in, practice is your key to success. Although often unseen and underreported, all of the world’s experts have one thing in common – they practice their craft with immense rigor. No expert has reached where they are in life without practice.
Take Michael Phelps for example. We all know he is the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time (28 Olympic medals), but do you know what it took to get there? Phelps dedicated his entire life to swimming, inside and outside the pool. For years, Phelps had a very strict regimen that consisted of over 6 hours a day in the pool, hours of weightlifting, technique drills, and intensive flexibility training. Phelp’s success was built on hours and hours and hours of dedicated practice.
If practice is so fundamental to success, why do people know so little about it? Why are the principles of effective practice so little known when the benefits are so significant to be gained? To these questions I do not have answers, but with a little education, I am hoping to change this situation.
For the past several decades, researchers have studied experts across numerous domains and codified what it is these experts do differently that makes them so good. A wide base of knowledge on building expertise has been established; however, it remains little known to the public. Incorporating the principles of effective practice has the power to supercharge careers, accelerate personal growth, and help you stand out amongst your peers.
What follows is a brief outline of the principles of building skill through practice.
Principles
Principle 1: Practice is the Key to Skill Acquisition
The famed physicist Niels Bohr once famously said “an expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.”
If you want to get better at something, you have to practice, this is a fact of life.
Surprisingly, for most people, researchers have found that genetics play a minimal role, if any, in the potential one has. The hypothesis that some individuals’ genetics determine their talents was the first hypothesis researchers set out to corroborate why some people seem to be so naturally gifted. On the surface, it seems logical and easy to chalk up society’s experts as just special people that were born predisposed towards greatness as a result of their genetics. This simply has not been found to be true. There is no research that has found any genetic differences between experts and non-experts alike. Sure, there may be some fields – such as Football or Wrestling – where physical stature derived from genetics can influence your performance, but outside of a few obvious scenarios, genetics play just a minor role in the whole scheme of things. Of course, the argument of nature vs nurture is one that is not yet conclusively decided, but findings up to this point suggest nature has a minimal role in the building of experts.
Interestingly, on this (unsuccessful) journey to find which genetics breed greatness, researchers did find one unexpected common denominator across all experts, no matter the domain: Practice. All experts, no matter the domain, practiced immensely — like, a lot. They not only dedicated themselves to practicing their craft, they practiced in very specific ways that maximized their learning. This was the breakthrough discovery researchers were looking for, and subsequent research has further unveiled the techniques of practice that are most fruitful (more on this in Principle #2).
One interesting case study is the world-famous composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The prevailing narrative suggests that Mozart was born a musical genius, endowed from birth with a genetic makeup that predisposed him towards musical greatness. A deeper look, however, muddies the water on this narrative.
Mozart’s father, Leopold Mozart, was a distinguished music teacher who published perhaps the most authoritative source on violin music theory of his time. Not only a musician, Leopold’s true passion lied in pedagogy, which is just a fancy word for teaching. Before Mozart’s birth, Leopold had a storied career playing music, teaching music, and writing authoritative texts on music. This obviously made for a ripe environment to raise children with a particular aptitude for music. From the moment of his birth, Mozart was surrounded by music, receiving intensive, world-class instruction from his father. By age 5, Mozart’s father quit his job to teach his son music full time, eventually touring him across Europe to perform for various royalty and elites. Mozart lived and breathed music. By the time of Mozart’s first breakthrough composition at age 21, he had perhaps been through the most intensive, rigorous music instruction regimen ever experienced by an individual up to that point in time.
Principle 2: There Are Four Elements of Effective Practice
Soon after failing to find any genetic differences among experts, researchers turned their attention to studying the one common denominator they did find – practice. Unfortunately, many people believe simply logging hours is enough to build expertise, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Mindlessly logging hours strumming your guitar is not enough; to truly grow your skills, you must practice in a certain way.
Numerous studies, aided by new brain imaging technology, have unveiled the truly best ways to practice:
- Goals – Each time you practice, you must have goals for what you are setting out to achieve.
- Comfort Zone – Skill growth happens beyond your current abilities; you have to push yourself beyond your comfort zone to organically grow your skills.
- Feedback – Whether received from a teacher or other avenues, reflecting on your performance and receiving feedback is critical to growing your skills.
- Focused – Tepid practice with apathetic effort won’t get you very far. Effective practice takes hard work.
Principle 3: When you Practice, your Brain Changes
We now know the brain is elastic. Simply put, this means that your brain has the ability to change itself. Practicing has the effect of adjusting the wiring in your brain. In the same way your muscle fibers regenerate and rebuild stronger after lifting weights, your brain rebuilds after a hard practice session. This is why it is so important to practice outside of your comfort zone.
Conclusion
The above principles provide a very brief introduction into the power of practice and possibility for it to supercharge your life.
If you take one thing from this article, take this: Practice is how you reach your goals.
Your progress lies in how you practice and the effort you put in. This should be an inspirational and optimistic message, one that allows you to believe in yourself. Keep learning, growing, and practicing and you’ll be surprised just how far you can go. Read more about Kyler Bush’s leadership skill building insights.
Kyler Bush is an aerospace engineer by day with a deep passion for learning and skill acquisition. He is the founder and owner of Next Level Learning, a company dedicated to helping others amplify their learning journeys.
