Deliberate Practice: Achieve Mastery in Anything by Sprouts

Deliberate practice is a mindful and highly structured

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form of learning by doing.

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It’s a process of continued experimentation

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to first achieve mastery and eventually full

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automaticity of a specific skill.

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A 2014 study published in Psychological Science

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argues that it can increase our performance

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by 26% in games, 21% in music and 18% in sports.

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Here are some tips on how to do it well.

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Define Success and Drill Deliberately

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Define all the elements you need to practice

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to become successful.

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Then drill each element deliberately,

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one after the other.

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In Tennis, that could be first your serves

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and then later your leg work.

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If you want to become a professional barista,

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first perfect your moves to make the espresso,

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then your skills to serve the ideal coffee.

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Plan, Reflect and Take Notes

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Plan out your practice routine,

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for example in a notebook.

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After each session,

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reflect and write down what you've discovered:

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What worked?

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What didn’t?

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The idea is to get a clear sense

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of how a particular session improves your skills

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and then to experiment to find new and ever better ways

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to achieve your goals.

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Go Slow

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To build a good foundation of muscle memory,

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practice slow and correctly.

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If we move too fast,

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we risk learning and internalizing the wrong skills,

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which can bring terrible consequences.

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To achieve mastery, our brain needs time to develop.

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So start slow and then gradually increase the speed

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until you give it all you've got .

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Limit Your Sessions to Focus

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Deliberate practice is hard metal work.

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Limit the sessions to a reasonable duration

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that allows you to stay focused.

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This may be 15 minutes if you are younger

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and 60 minutes if you are older.

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Cristiano Ronaldo

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does around 3-4 hours of football training a day.

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Young Shaolin Monks practice 2 hours in the morning

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and two hours in the afternoon.

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To keep their attention high,

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they switch the style of practice every 10 minutes.

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Maximize Practice Time

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Legendary basketball coach John Wooden

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used to let each of his players

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practice putting on socks and shoes

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so that they learn to do it really fast.

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By doing this, he maximized the time

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to practice throwing the ball

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and discussing game strategy with his team.

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Track Small Intervals of Improvement

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If you practice running 800 meters,

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count the milliseconds not the minutes.

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If you are working out or practice controlling your diet,

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measure milligrams and millimeters.

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The smaller the data points you measure,

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the faster you see progress

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and the more you feel motivated to continue.

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Emulate Practice, Not Performance

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The top performance we see on screens or on stage

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is the result of endless hard work behind the curtain.

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If you want to become as good as Pavarotti in the Opera

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or as skillful as Messi with the ball,

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don’t watch them perform,

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study how they practice.

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Repetition Makes Perfect

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In the 1990s, a team of German psychologists

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revealed that it takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice

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to become a professional violinist.

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A similar study concluded it takes almost as long

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to become a great cigar maker.

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New workers in a Cuban cigar factory

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take around 25 seconds to make one cigar.

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After 100,000 repetitions, it takes them just 15 seconds

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and after 1 million only 8.

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To reach peak performance,

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it takes 7 years and 10 million repetitions of

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the same hand movements.

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Not practice, but repetition makes perfect.

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Professional football teams therefore play daily

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what the Spanish players call "Rondo".

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Piano players warm-up with Scales and Arpeggios.

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Routine Is Everything

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To reach mastery, young Shaolin Monks

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get up at 5:30AM.

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Then chant, eat breakfast

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and practice two hours of Kung Fu.

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At 11:30 they have a vegetarian lunch

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with no liquids to aid digestion.

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At around 3PM, they practice another two hours.

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At 5:30 is dinner,

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followed by chanting.

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At 8 meditation.

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At 10 time for bed.

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Us normal people can start with 15 Minutes every day

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and then slowly increase our session.

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Get a Coach

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The job of a coach is to show us our true potential

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and then guide us in the right direction.

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If you don’t have a coach, look for one.

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It can a teacher, a friend

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or even someone you find or follow online.

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For our favorite teachers and coaches,

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visit our Sprouts channel page

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and check out our playlists.

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The Dalai Lama believes deliberate practice

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not only works for muscles,

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but also for our mind.

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He and other wise minds

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deliberately practice taking other people's anger,

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suspicion and mistrust

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and then giving them patience,

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tolerance and compassion in return.

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What do you think about deliberate practice,

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can we also use it for training our thinking skills?

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Share your thoughts in the comments below!