Let’s say that you want to become the most badass guitarist since Jimi Hendrix. Would you start by buying a guitar and booking a couple of gigs? If so, you could definitely use the advice in this post. You can’t just jump into anything and be successful. I don’t care if you have natural born talent, are full of lucky genetics, or were born to Hendrix himself. Chances are if you want to be a rockstar, or achieve ultimate success in anything, you’ll have to do it the old fashion way.
Luckily for you the old fashion way still works very well. Especially since most people out there still don’t use it. When someone wants to lose weight, what’s the first thing they look for? The easy way. Well I’m here to tell you that there is no easy way. But the ‘old fashion’ way isn’t hard either. It just takes a little work, strategy, dedication, and most of all patience. If you wanted to be a bodybuilder, but you only weighed 135 lbs, you wouldn’t plan on entering a competition next week, right? Ok, I think you get the point. Now on to the good stuff.
There are 3 phases of strategy for mastery of any subject or skill; Learning, practicing, and taking action. Without adequate time spent developing in each of these categories we couldn’t possibly hope for anything above mediocrity.
For simplicities sake, we’re going to assume that I want to be the best basketball player that ever lived.
You wouldn’t jump in a league game without reading up first right? The way the cycle works is that you learn the basics, then practice what you learned till your ready to put your newly found skills into action. At this point you would start the whole process over again. Balance here is the key. If you spend to much time with your head in the books and never practice, it will show come game time. By the same token, if you jump into a game without having covered the basics, you probably won’t perform under pressure.
Learning
Once you realize just how important the learning curve for most skills is, you’ll start to love the learning phase just as much as I do. I absolutely love getting books, videos, podcasts, or any other type of material I can get my hands on when I first start developing a new skill. I like to learn the basics, and even understand a few of the more advance parts of a skill before I get out there and try my hand at it. That’s not to say that the [intlink id="1029" type="post"]Ready, Fire, Aim[/intlink] method can’t be successful, but sometimes it’s just a good idea to have a clear foundational understanding before you get out on the court.
Practicing
This is another phase that is often neglected. Sometimes we think that because we read the books, listen to the podcasts, and observe the pros that once we get out onto the court we will be able to mimic the movements with the same finesse that they do. As soon as we hit the court reality takes it’s course. The knowledge is great, but the skill doesn’t come from the knowledge, the skill comes from the development. The knowledge is there to give us an idea of how to develop the skill.
Take Action
Here we take all of our newly gained knowledge and foundational skills and put them to the test. We develop a feel for replicating the skills we practiced in the real life situation. We expect to be a bit rusty, it will take time. But the first few failures are necessary to understand the learning curve. We put our developed skills to the test, then we reassess and decide if we need to go back to the books or work on practicing again.
Summary
The mastery of any skill is a reinforcement cycle based on performance. When we are lacking in the performance in one area we go back to the learning phase and ensure we have the knowledge right. Then we practice again, and finally we test our skills in real world situations. Removing any phase of the cycle would lead to less than ideal results.
Follow the Learn, Practice, Action cycle and you’ll be the master of anything you set your mind to.
Have a real life experience where this method really helped you acheive success? Leave a comment and let us know how it worked.
