To learn any new skill or gain expertise you need to practice, practice, practice. There isn’t much debate about that.
But here’s what you might not know: scientific research shows that the quality of your practice is just as important as the quantity.
And, more interestingly, these scientists also believe that expert-level performance is primarily the result of expert-level practice NOT due to innate talent.
This concept is known as deliberate practice, and it’s incredibly powerful.
First, let’s look at what the experts have to say. This is from K. Anders Ericsson, a psychologist and scientific researcher out of Florida State University in the paper titled The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance:
People believe that because expert performance is qualitatively different from normal performance the expert performer must be endowed with characteristics qualitatively different from those of normal adults. This view has discouraged scientists from systematically examining expert performers and accounting for their performance in terms of the laws and principles of general psychology.
The common view held until recently was that expert-level performance was simply the result of talent and “natural abilities.” This view has held back scientific progress towards learning what really makes experts so talented, from a psychological perspective.
Think about your own views for a moment.
How often do you say “wow, that guy is talented” when thinking about your favorite athlete, performer or other expert-level role models?
Have you ever thought you’re not cut out to do something due to a lack of talent?
Now here’s where it gets interesting. Back to the findings from Ericsson and his team at Florida State University:
We agree that expert performance is qualitatively different from normal performance and even that expert performers have characteristics and abilities that are qualitatively different from or at least outside the range of those of normal adults. However, we deny that these differences are immutable, that is, due to innate talent. Only a few exceptions, most notably height, are genetically prescribed. Instead, we argue that the differences between expert performers and normal adults reflect a life-long period of deliberate effort to improve performance in a specific domain.
(emphasis mine)
Experts then, aren’t people with freakish natural abilities in a particular domain. Experts are experts at maintaining high-levels of practice and improving performance.
In other words, it’s not about what you’re born with. It’s about how consistently and deliberately you can work to improve your performance.
The importance of a few obvious genetic differences like height can’t be denied within some areas of expertise (basketball or horse jockeying, for example), but in most other areas motivation and deliberate practice can overcome even differences in cognative abilities (brain power).
Introducing Deliberate Practice
Deliberate practice is a highly structured activity engaged in with the specific goal of improving performance.
Deliberate practice is different from work, play and simple repetition of a task. It requires effort, it has no monetary reward, and it is not inherently enjoyable.
When you engage in deliberate practice, improving your performance over time is your goal and motivation.
That’s not to say that deliberate practice can’t be designed to be fun, but it isn’t inherently enjoyable on it’s own.
If you want to gain skills rapidly or approach expert-level status at something, you must understand the importance of deliberate practice and learn how to incorporate it into your daily life.
The Four Essential Components of Deliberate Practice
Research into the history of education (dating back several thousand years), combined with more recent scientific experiments have uncovered a number of conditions for optimal learning and improvement. Again, from K. Anders Ericsson, here are the four essential components of deliberate practice.
When these conditions are met, practice improves accuracy and speed of performance on cognitive, perceptual, and motor tasks:
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You must be motivated to attend to the task and exert effort to improve your performance.
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The design of the task should take into account your pre-existing knowledge so that the task can be correctly understood after a brief period of instruction.
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You should receive immediate informative feedback and knowledge of results of your performance.
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You should repeatedly perform the same or similar tasks.
It’s important to note that without adequate feedback about your performance during practice, efficient learning is impossible and improvement is minimal.
Simple practice isn’t enough to rapidly gain skills.
Mere repetition of an activity won’t lead to improved performance.
Your practice must be: intentional, aimed at improving performance, designed for your current skill level, combined with immediate feedback and repetitious.
What Deliberate Practice Means for You
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Natural ability is no excuse.
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How you practice matters most.
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How long you persevere determines your limits.
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Motivation becomes the real constraint on expertise.
If you’re 5’5″, maybe you shouldn’t set your sites on becoming an NBA center. Some physical limits are obvious. Most other “limits” are cop-outs or relics of old misunderstandings about talent.
What’s cool is that even limits of brainpower can be overcome with deliberate practice. One-on-one tutoring has shown to greatly reduce the differences in achievement between students of different cognitive abilities.
To benefit from practice and reach your potential, you have to constantly challenge yourself.
This doesn’t mean repeatedly doing what you already know how to do.
This means understanding your weaknesses and inventing specific tasks in your practice to address those deficiencies.
Becoming an expert is a marathon, not a sprint.
You cannot reach your mental and physical limits in just a few weeks or months. To grow to the top of your game, you’ll have to persevere for years.
Your practice has to be deliberate and intense, but it also has to be carefully scheduled and limited in ways to avoid burnout and long-term fatigue (both mental and physical).
Practice isn’t always fun. It’s an investment into improving yourself, your skills and your future.
In order to practice with intention for long enough to become an expert or gain useful skills, you have to find the motivation to make the investment.
Where will you find that motivation?
Now we’d love to hear from you.
What is your experience with deliberate practice? How do you stay motivated to purposefully practice something to improve your performance?
Tell us in the comments.
Photo by svenwerk
For Further Reading
Several books have been written recently based on the underlying study I referred to in this post. Check out these excellent reads to start with:
Interesting. I was just reading about “deliberate practice” in Susan Cain’s new book: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking.
Word.
Haven’t heard of that book Wesley. Thanks for the recommendation.
Sure. Check it out. Don’t know where you fall on the introvert/extrovert scale so be warned that Audie Cornish on NPR was somewhat bristly and defensive in interviewing Cain (as Cornish is clearly an extrovert).
One of the points Cain makes about Deliberate Practice is that it effectively must be done alone. In a group practice, one does not get to work on his or her own area of weakness in as focused a manner.
Great post! I love the point about motivation to practice. It’s essentially where the heart and mind is. It’s amazing how powerfully our internal states enhance (or don’t) our performance. I meditate to get myself in a frame of mind for much that I do. My intention is to be sure I’m very, very present permitting all of my wherewithal to be brought to the fore and to ensure that my intention is clear; sustain health so that I can do good works, improve myself so that friends and family are loved well and acquire skills that permit me to do the greatest good.
“In order to practice with intention for long enough to become an expert or gain useful skills, you have to find the motivation to make the investment.
Where will you find that motivation?”
The motivation does indeed seem to be the crux of the problem. Perhaps we need to look at all those “Talented” people and ask, “What motivated you? Where did you find the motivation to continue your deliberate practice? Did you have outside motivation from a teacher? a parent? a friend? Was your motivation internal? If so, how did you find that internal motivation?
Thanks for a great article which has set me to thinking.
And thanks for the suggestion about asking accomplished people where they found the motivation. That could be very interesting indeed.
Where the heck did you come up with this? This is BRILLIANT stuff man.
Now I know where to send people to when they argue with me that they are not talented enough to do this or that. Loved the phrase “deliberate practice”.
Very, very nice post.
P.S. How long did it take you to write this? The research and all, this is epic-ness all over again perhaps?
Thanks so much Momekh! I answered your question about writing the post in a response to Natasha below. Cheers
I love deliberate practice just like I love passionate action. They are one in the same. But the word practice, for me, insinuates that you are doing something because you have to to get better instead of doing it because you love doing it.
When you love doing something you don’t practice at it you just do what you love and due to you doing it so often you naturally become better.
Great post, Corbett.
Wow … not sure where to start on this one, too much processing going on (can smell the smoke from the gerbil wheel).
I’ve never understood the need to label expertise as something attainable by a select, talented few. I’ll lump terms like guru and ninja in as well.
Motivation is probably the biggest challenge of the bunch. I’m a big believer in daily recommitment. You have to show up every day, but start the process by reminding yourself why you’re really committed to this practice in the first place.
It’s an alignment of intent (show up), focus (eliminate distraction to best of your abilities) and purpose (why the hell this matters to you) IMO. If those three don’t play in the sandbox together, motivation can be rather fleeting.
Thanks Corbett, excellent stuff as usual.
During the Cold War, the CIA came up with an acronym for what persuaded agents to defect from the Soviet Union to the West, and vice versa. That acronym is MICE.
There are several varieties to this, but the most common one is money, ideology, coercion, and ego. While these are used to describe as to what motivates an agent to turn, we can ourselves turn these on us.
Money
The oldest motivator known to man. Although we’d like to believe that our motivation is entirely altruistic, there is nothing wrong with a financial motivator. It can be something as simple as knowing that as soon as you get better at a certain skill set you may get promotion therein qualifying you for more money, or you can dangle your own carrot. “I’ll buy myself X once I do Y” is a great kick starter.
Ideology
This is meant as a change of heart. Some Western agents believed that the mighty communist machine was inevitable and joined the Reds. While most of the time, Soviet and Eastern agents would see the freedom and joys of the West and turn over here. Regardless, we can use this as a motivator for ourselves. I am not saying we need to destroy our beliefs! To the contrary. Ideology is belief and we need to embrace them. Just knowing what you’re doing is important is enough. One just needs a constant reminder.
Coercion
No, do not go out and blackmail yourself! While this was used to force agents to spill the beans (i.e. we have photos of you and your mistress we can share with your wife unless you tell us your nation’s secrets) we can instead look at coercion as accountability. Telling everyone on facebook that you’re going to start exercising is a perfect example. It forces you, or coerces you, to keep going forward with your goal.
Ego
This one is probably the biggest motivator yet easily dismissed because of our – ironically enough – ego. “I’m learning to play guitar/learn a language/get in shape/etc., etc., because I care about bettering myself.” That may be true, but you also care what other people think of you. And that’s okay! The line between ego and ideology can get blurred but at the end they both pander to our self beliefs and what others think of them.
So if you’re having a hard time getting yourself going on a certain goal or project, look no further than yourself. Yes, that man in the mirror may be the main force stopping you, but with the right change of perspective, that same reflection can serve as the main motivator you need.
Note:
This response was made into a blog post. You can find it here: http://hernandeztony.wordpress.com/2012/02/06/of-mice-and-motivation/
First of all, great post.
I really resonated with the section on, “How you Practice Matter Most.” I’ve learned that mere repetition is useless unless it challenges you to push past your barriers and grow.
At the end of the day, practice should make you better.
Committing to it on a daily basis, that’s were the challenge begins.
Great article, thanks. I’d actually been thinking along those lines all day after watching Madonna’s performance at the Superbowl. It struck me that Madonna has achieved everything she has through sheer hard work (deliberate practice?) and determination. I guess very early on she had a clear idea of what she wanted, where she was headed and what she wouldn’t settle for, and she just went for it. I need to take a leaf out of her book.
And like Momekh above, I am curious to know how long it took you to write this particular article!
Good on ya
Hey Natasha (and Momekh), regarding writing this particular article, the actual writing and editing probably took me about two hours. I’ve been reading about expertise and deliberate practice extensively over the past three months though, and many hours have gone into that. That’s how a lot of writing goes for me. The preparation takes weeks, but the execution only takes a handful of hours.
Cheers, glad this one was helpful!
And yeah, Madonna is a fantastic example. She seems to work incredibly hard at perfecting her craft. The 5 minute show at the SuperBowl took 30+ years to produce, in one way.
Are there any books you recommend on the topic?
Yeah, great question, I forgot to include some in the post. Check these out to start with:
Bounce
Talent is Overrated
The Talent Code
Outliers
I just added links to those books at the end of the article above.
Great Article, Corbett, thank you. Just wanted to comment on the Super Bowl example: that’s also a soothing thing to know that the achievement of all practising does pile up, it spirals to higher heights. After 30+ years you can do things that were unfathomable at the beginning.
Attributing someone’s success to their natural talent, or even luck, has the pernicious effect of creating unconscious limits.
By not recognizing the hard work that people have put into their achievements (championship ring, published book, well-known song) a person creates a false reasoning as to why somebody else has something they don’t.
I was guilty of this for many years. Understanding that, with the exception of certain physical limitations, anything that successful people were doing could be mine as well as long as I practiced enough, worked hard enough, and stayed motivated enough, was very liberating.
Once I took off the blinders of limitations, I was able to see how uncharted my life really was and that I was free to choose my own direction. It’s a pretty awesome feeling.
Excellent article that I hope a lot of my friends see!
Fantastic point Taylor. When people overlook the hard work, it’s almost as if being successful or talented is like winning the lottery. It’s a way to opt out from doing any hard work yourself because you believe it’s futile unless you were born with talent. Sadly I think a lot of people live with this mental model.
I think the comment by Dave Doolin says it best…and I quote…”Word.”
Awesome Dave!!
Neuro Linguistic Programing has study a lot of learning techniques, and their focus goes from what experts do, feel, think, see, etc.
Then they use “modeling” to imitate every step of a person, for example, Richard Bandler discovered that expert baseball players “saw” the ball pretty big and slow, they call it altered states, it’s like when in an accident you can think pretty fast and even see things going slow.
So they try to teach all the steps of the process and then see what they can take away or add things to the process in order to make learning even faster.
For example a big trick for spelling is to train your mind to see the word, change sizes in letters, add colors to them, and see the word as an image, to memorize a number just asociate the numer to dates, ages, or any other things that can help you remember.
And like that there are plenty of tricks to do to learn many stuff and become expert in them, of course, some are harder than others, but still works like a charm.
You just have to find what works best for you when learning something, because, what works for other people, may not work with you, but once you find it, then it can be pretty easy to learn anything
Reminds me of a quote by Stephen King, “Talent in cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.”
Like you said in a comment above, people immediately think a lof of success is based on talent and they give up.
But there have been lots of talented athletes that go from college to high school, but at the top level talent doesn’t cut it.
Jordan wasn’t the best because he was the most talented. It was because he was the most competitive and worked so hard to ensure he wouldn’t lose.
Hi Corbett,
Great article. Cal Newport at studyhacks has done a heap of posts on this topic I’d recommend his blog to anyone that wants to learn more.
The big take away for me is that practicing in state of ‘flow’, although it feels right, is not deliberate practice. Deliberate practice is stop-start and frustrating. It is a sweet spot right on the edge of being completely out of your depth.
Tom
Great article. It’s pretty obvious why I didn’t get the grades and accolades I now know I was capable of back in grade school–I didn’t have any intention of improving myself. Now, learning about economics and teaching myself a new language is still hard, but it’s much more rewarding with the right mindset.
Two of my good friends are amazing musicians, and practicing for nearly 4 hours each day isn’t exactly fun for them, but they still do it because they have clear goals and intentions. Calling their musical abilities just “talent” is almost insulting because of the very literal blood, sweat and tears they’ve put into their craft. I think of them when I start losing motivation.
This is a great distinction. An art teacher I had used to say it’s not ‘practice makes perfect’, but ‘perfect practice makes perfect’, so the way you practice is important, not just going through the motions of practicing for the sake of it.
I enjoyed the article and it really got me thinking.
We have all met people that have been practicing some skill for “years” yet have stopped making progress. They have plateaued.
If you asked them they would probably say they have reached the limit of their abilities. That they don’t have enough talent.
Based on the ideas presented in this article a more accurate conclusion is that they aren’t practicing correctly.
I am using deliberate practice techniques myself as I learn guitar and I wrote a post inspired by this article.
How do you suggest one get immediate feedback? There isn’t much written on that point and I find that the hardest component to find.
You could work with a teacher who can provide feedback, use a learning environment that provides feedback, or partner up with peers who can provide each other with feedback.
In some cases, you might be able to use an audience or customers or constituents for feedback as well.
Great article!
In the last two years I am very interesting about Mastery and deliberate practice is a essencial part of it.
One question, maybe someone will help me
How can I introduce deliberate practice in the quest of becoming better at writting?
I will be delighted to read your great suggestions,
create a great week
Jose
Hey Corbett,
Great Post!!! For eighteen years I was a high performance athlete. I know what it means deliberate practice. I am now in the process of learning to play piano, and I am trying to transfer all that knowledge to this new adventure. How to learn a skill and improve constantly, how to keep motivated and overcome boredom, how to identify your weaknesses and work on them. Since I am new at playing piano, it is not clear for me how to do it. This article gives me some light.
Thanks.
I teach little kids tennis. Tennis is a skill not a talent. It is simply: DELIBERATE PRACTICE WITH PURPOSE OVER TIME. YOU LEARN THE BASICS–THEN HIT LOTS OF TENNIS BALLS to get so good at it that you don’t think about it. Then you let it happen. TENNIS IS A SIMPLE GAME that experts try to make complicated. The great players play SIMPLE TENNIS–keep the ball in play-keep em movin’ and hit it where they aint.
Wow! Epic Article Corbett! You are definitely an expert at blogging! I am a golf instructor & trainer. I always talk about perfect practice with my students so they see improvement instead of just going through the motions. I think it is important to always mix it up in whatever activity you are doing. For example, in fitness, if you do the same workout routine everyday you are going to plateau. Your muscles need confusion and different exercise, reps. & sets to keep improving in strength, muscle tone, and size. It depends on what your goals are and what you would like to accomplish. The larger the goal and the farther you have to improve the more you have to mix it up and deliberately practice over a longer period of time!
Corbett,
I completely agree with the post – I believe we will see massive increases in the average level of performance among hobbyists if and when this science percolates to the general public.
That; however, is the difficulty. To provide a few examples:
Using hours practiced as a gauge, I am a beginner pianist. However, using quality of play and difficulty of pieces, I am easily an intermediate player. The secret? Hard work applied in exactly the manner you described in your post – http://www.pianofundamentals.com/. To the gentlemen who wanted guidance on piano practice, this book is a gem. Traditional pedagogy has a student learn a piece at a slow tempo, and then slowly ratchet up the speed. This book instead has the pianist focus on extremely small chunks, which can by isolation be repeatedly practiced. By focusing on specific components, rather than a little bit of everything at once, technique is acquired much more rapidly. Nevertheless, my friends are quick to ascribe my rapid progression to ‘natural talent’, even when I tell them I believe it is because of deliberate practice.
Ballroom dance offers another story. The mark of promising student is one who practices technique in isolation. Why is it that this field has integrated this knowledge into common pedagogy, while music instruction rejects it? I have a few guesses, and they don’t reveal any useful knowledge, so perhaps a better question is this – are there any lessons which can be learned from fields like ballroom dance (in relation to percolating this knowledge, not specific techniques)? I’m not sure; I hope you touch on this in future posts!
I read this. I practise everyday now, to improve my ability.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daSF_ztHAIw – you can hear me sing.
But more importantly I have read quite a bit on the topic of hard work and deliberate practise, but I have something questions that havent been answered.
My first question is how do you effectively measure how someone practises? Following on from that how to do effectively measure the application of practise in a domain?
My next question which can probably be answered the first one is how come people who receive the same amount of training from teacher of similar or the same ability have differences in their level ability.
I think its almost worth mentioning I do not believe that expertise translates into success or financial reward. many people make a living out of something at very high levels are not experts in their field. being an expert is v.helpful but we also remember in many domains esp arts more spec the music industry you need to the feed agenda of people being in higher positions than you in order to move forward in many cases.
Anyways write back to me, and let me know what you think. thanks
Answers to your questions:
1, If you read the study that Corbett mentioned in the beginning you will find there what methods were used to measure the level of practice.
2, In my opinion the difference is in the amount of DP they put into mastering something. It is not enough to receive education. According to the same study practicing alone is the most important activity – different quality of DP produces different results.
Hope it helps.
As a professional musician the best advice I’ve ever heard about practice that changed my ENTIRE approach was “Don’t practice for hours, practice for results” – Jojo Mayer
If you are’t challenging your comfort zone you aren’t improving…you’re just rehashing things that you already know. Whether it be in music, life, business, or anything else, without challenging yourself daily you won’t be better than you were yesterday.
Hi Corbett,,
I love what you are doing and find your writing and work inspirational. I had a massive haemorrhagic stroke just over a year ago (and out of the blue).
Although I was aware of deliberate practice and what it could do for you from my past career you have certainly helped reshaped my path in the present. Expert Enough is absolutely outstanding.
SOOO in the spirit of what a good friend of mine says, Embrace Life and being a multiplier. Rusyl (my wife) and I would love you to visit us in New Zealand and be our guest. So we can spoil you and show you what we do as well.
Let me know what you think,
Best Regards
Mark Harris