4 Phases of Developing any Skill: Practice, Progress, Peaks and Plateaus

Practice

It’s been said before and I’ll say it again. Repetition is the mother of skill. This last 10 days I’ve been really fortunate in that I’ve been able to surf every single day. While I’m getting a few shades darker thanks to the California sunshine (yes, you should hate me if you leave somewhere cold), my wave riding skills are increasing exponentially every day. If you do anything on a daily basis you will get better it.

In fact there will be a point at which you don’t really have to think about how to do it anymore. Think about the things in your life that you do on a daily basis. Assuming you are not a 16 year old, (no offense to teen bloggers) chances are you drive your car every single day. Almost everything you do in your car happens on a subconscious level. If I told you to break down every step from the time you left your door till the time you arrived at your destination, you’d be amazed at how complex what you are doing actually is. But you’ve done it so much and so many times that you really don’t  have to think about it at all. Anything you do on a daily basis will eventually become that way. Many of who you read this blog have probably read Malcom Gladwell’s book Outliers and know about the 10,000 hours rule. If not, let me summarize it for you.

Anybody who has achieved mastery of their craft (examples in this book include Bill Gates, The Beatles, professional athletes, and more) has had 10,000 hours of practice time. That works out to 20 hours a week for about 10 years.

Progress

It’s a great argument for the fact that natural talent might not be natural and with the right amount of practice anyone can be on this level. I will say this. I have  no natural athletic ability. In 7th grade I was ranked most improved player on the basketball team. In other words, I was the shittiest player on the team. When I played football, I got the living daylights beat out of me on a regular basis and was more like a tackling dummy for those Texans in College Station.  I would probably think it’s safe to say I broke the 1,000 hour mark for surfing a few months back. It literally took me going 10 times before I could even stand up. As Ian from Leash Optional so eloquently said a days ago: The hardest part of riding a wave is standing up on your board.  But I’ve persisted through it and it’s a different experience for me now. I think brute force and stubborn persistence played a role in this. It doesn’t hurt that I love the ocean and how I feel after I get done.  I think it’s worth thinking about the fact that there is a natural progression that occurs as we develop any skill.

Peaks

The next phase in the developing any skill or goal (blog traffic, athletic ability, etc) is getting to a point of peak performance. Technically, this is performing at the best of your current abilities. What’s strange is that whatever skill it is you are developing, you will experience a series of peaks. In each peak you will gain one or two profound insights that cause that exponential increase in your abilities.  In fact you’ll in each peak you’ll realize that one small adjustment can make a big difference. In these peaks you also have to be very careful to be aware of that 6 signs that you are too attached to success because you will not get the most out of your peaks if you fall into a trap where you can’t identify the difference between success and perfection.

Plateaus

Plateaus are interesting and frustrating all at the same time. In a plateau we often find ourselves wanting to give up because we are seemingly  not making progress. The fundamental difference between those who make it and those who don’t is persisting through something when you want to give up the most. What’s strange is that a plateau on the surface is a time in which you are making no progress. Most of you have may not be aware of this, but growth here at The Skool of Life has been somewhat slow over the last 2 months. Traffic is actually down a certain percentage from the last few months and it’s feeling like a plateau.  But it’s during a plateau that you get to hone the skills you’ve developed during a peak.  While on the surface it might appear that you are making no progress, in all reality you are actually just moving more towards mastery during a plateau.

I think by nature we are fairly impatient. We want everything faster. We want to be successful sooner rather than later. We want it today. But, at the end of the day success achieved through instant gratification is nothing but a house of cards.