If becoming good at things has become a lost art, what does that mean for those of us who still want to learn new things and become remarkable people?
Let’s start by looking at all the things keeping us from getting good.
Gaining knowledge and improving your skills is the only way to get really good at something. The problem is there are a thousand-and-one things keeping us from making progress every day.
It’s time to look some of those improvement-robbing sources in the eye so we can start making real progress.
If you’re frustrated by a lack of progress towards gaining a particular new skill, here are 5 things that might be keeping you from getting truly good:
- Worshipping the “talent fairy”
Since you’re reading this, I’ll assume this doesn’t apply to you. But it’s worth examining just in case.
It’s easy to get sucked into believing that it isn’t worth trying something because you weren’t blessed with “natural ability.”
We look at our heroes and assume they were blessed with more talent than us.
We use this as an excuse over and over and never really commit to anything.
Our heroes weren’t blessed with natural talent. They were blessed with motivation and commitment like 99.99% of people will never experience.
Don’t let belief in the “talent fairy” rob you of your potential.
- The Internet
For every way you can use the Internet to make progress, there are 1000 ways you can use the Internet to keep you from making progress.
Even the good stuff on the Internet can just become a distraction from what you should really be doing.
Take this article, for example. We appreciate you reading it, but if you don’t take action because of it I don’t think we’ve done our job.
And don’t just stop at your examination of the Internet. This goes for any gadget or form of entertainment. Smartphones, video games, TV, movies, etc. They’re great in moderation, but most of us spend a soul-sucking amount of time engaged with entertainment and fruitless checking of our gadgets, email and social media.
Put down the Internet. Start making more progress.
- Motivation-robbing expectations
You had a dream. You started chasing that dream.
Then you encountered a speed bump you didn’t expect. You thought it would all be a little easier, so you let that first speed bump totally throw you off track.
Most things worth doing in life are much harder than we think they’ll be in the beginning. If you expect things to be easy, you’ll be bummed out every time those expectations are tested.
Think about your own situation. If you’re not making progress right now, is it because your target is much harder to achieve than you thought?
What has changed in your mind since you started working toward this goal?
- Taking on too many pursuits at once
We like to say around here that life is richest when we become good at a lot of different things. I still believe that, but “getting good” at a lot of different things can rarely happen all at the same time.
If you’re pursuing a bunch of new skills at once, all of them will suffer. Your growth will be frustratingly slow.
We only have so much time in a day. We have even less quality focus time in each day. Think about all the things you’re working towards now.
Is it realistic to expect growth in all of them at once?
Could you put a couple of things on the back burner for now, so you can focus on making real progress at one or two of the most important things?
-
Unchallenging practice
Practice makes perfect, but only if the practice itself is perfect.
Perfect practice is challenging practice. It’s deliberate practice.
If your practice has become unchallenging and routine, it’s time to shake things up. To really get good at something, the quality of your practice is probably the thing you should focus on most.
Now we’d love to hear from you.
What else is holding you back from getting good?
What would you add to this list?
|
Share this post
|
Get free email updates
|
Pursuing several projects at once is hard. Finding common ground between all the projects allows working multiple parallel agendas.
This is the notion that doing something for one project solves problems in other projects as well.
The ‘getting good” part comes from identifying common elements which provide leverage, then working those common elements very hard. Easier said than done.
Great list, Corbett.
Another one I would add is “following other people’s roadmap to success.” I think far too often, we idolize people who are living pieces of our dream and in doing so, rob ourselves of agency and innovation.
To be clear, I do think there is something to be said about the power of apprenticeship and the value of learning from others’ successes (and mistakes) but blindly following someone else’s path is a guaranteed way to keep yourself from getting good.
I’d say that fear of failure is another roadblock. Mistakes are inevitable, but they won’t be catastrophic. Take advantage of the mistakes, and learn as much as possible from them.
Damn even pursuing 2 things at the same time it’s damn hard, I decided to lose weight and also to create a business and just with those 2 I feel like I’m doing a whole bunch of things, I had to master first for one month to focus on exercising and now that I have created time for it, I’m focusing on the business
The motivation fairy doesn’t bring success either. The energy needs to be intelligently applied. As you say, the kind of practise you do matters.
If you lose interest in something: ask why; it is worth knowing. Don’t just mindlessly persist or you may be successful at something stupid.
Really helpful post Corbett. I get really stuck with #4. It’s a great reminder that though I enjoy a “liberal arts” approach to life, I should probably tackle one art at a time
.
I would add “quitting too soon.” It’s like what would happen every time I picked up a new video game. I would get worse before I got better.
“Our heroes weren’t blessed with natural talent. They were blessed with motivation and commitment like 99.99% of people will never experience.”
Seems contradictory; maybe talent = motivation x commitment, neh?
And they are so interwoven. Or can be.
Hit a bump in the road, #3. Dream? Was it even possible? Am I fooling myself? Now what?
Lemme search some more for answers. #2. So much good stuff. I’ll try this. Oh, and that. And look what my guru, my muse, has to say about that. Wow.
And … then #4. The shotgun approach to hitting the biz lottery. Something’s gotta work. I’ll just keep trying more things. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll figure this out what I want to be when I grow up.
#5? Not a chance.
Not that I would know.
I have a habit of trying to do too much but have been getting at saying “No” so that I can focus more: http://franklinchen.com/blog/2012/02/23/saying-no-in-order-to-say-yes
I’m totally sold on “deliberate practice” and working very hard on getting good at stuff. It’s been inspiring following blogs like Expert Enough that keep me on track.