“Never stop practicing to get better.” – Glenn K. Seki
An excerpt from How To Become The Best at Anything, Chapter 8, Deliberate Practice and Learning
This is the goal of performing deliberate practice, the 10,000 hours, to automate procedures and classifications. To get there you need the concepts, processes, principles, and productions. Remember, you must automate the productions correctly. If you automate them incorrectly it will take a lot of work and time to un-automated it.
How do you practice? What do you practice? That depends on what domain and what production you are trying to automate. This is another reason why you need a coach. Your coach will help you with drills and practices to perform.
Some generalizations about practice.
Practice perfect.
Practice can be a physical action.
Practice can be a mental action.
Practice can combine physical and mental actions.
Practice with people that are better than you.
Practice with a coach.
Do your homework before you practice.
Get guided practice (practice with immediate feedback).
Practice to get better.
Practice what you are NOT good at.
As the story goes, there was this top concert pianist who was regarded as the best at performing a particular concerto. During one of his practice sessions he thought a few bars could be better. So, he practiced on improving these few bars of music for several hours a day for months. When he performed again in concert, he had taken his total performance to a new higher level. He practiced to get better and he practiced what he thought could be improved: his weak spot in his performance. By doing so, even though he was already considered the best, he became even better.
Never stop practicing to get better.
