How to Use Deliberate Practice in Your Life

One of the secrets to my success in any part of my life hinges on the words Deliberate Practice. Coined by Anders Ericsson, Florida State psychology professor and author of Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise, deliberate practice is the process of working in a specific, purposeful, and strategic way to improve any skill.

Deliberate practice: What it is and why you need feedback to reach success

So what do we all do once we’ve hit an “ok” level but want to keep improving? This is where Deliberate practice becomes extremely important.

The difference between “automatic” repetitive practice and the more purposeful “deliberate” practice comes down to knowing where you need to improve and focus on getting better.

Deliberate practice is taking a systematic and specific approach to improvement that builds over time, rather than simply doing the same thing over and over and over.

The key is in knowing where you need to focus your attention.  This part requires feedback. Ericsson describes it:

“Purposeful practice is all about putting a bunch of baby steps together to reach a

longer-term goal.”

Feedback tells you what steps you need to take.  Just like the process of getting into a state of flow at work, home, deliberate practice requires constant feedback and being able to adjust whatever you’re doing.

How to Use Deliberate Practice in Your Life

1. Find your motivation - what motivates you? what makes you feel? why are you doing what you're doing? You need to be able to answer these questions. 

2. Define your goals and make sure there measurable… get clear on what you want

3. Commit to 1.5 hours per day of practicing

4. Be consistent — drawn out effort can lead to frustration and be uncomfortable at times, but try to push through those tough times because they often lead to significant improvement.

5. Set-up your systems of feedback — this would be me … if you have an actual membership with Mastering P.o.P., you’re getting a ton of feedback and you have access to Workflows, videos tutorials, future webinars, the Community, etc.

6. Take time to Chill  — you know what this means