“Never quit. It is the easiest cop-out in the world. Set a goal and don’t quit until you attain it. When you do attain it, set another goal, and don’t quit until you reach it. Never quit.” – Bear Bryant If you are passionate about a goal or dream of yours then don’t stop until you achieve it. Do whatever it takes. Persisting in the face of adversity is what builds champions. *** Goals for Practice “When you are planning a practice session, set a specific goal for that particular practice. Just like setting your ultimate goal, set your practice goals the same way. You know your starting point (current…
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Vision is Everything
“If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.” – Lawrence J. Peter Highly successful organizations and individuals all have an extremely clear vision of where they are going. *** “To navigate to anywhere you need to know your starting point and where you are going. Once you know that, you can determine the direction and the amount of time it will take you to reach your final destination. You will need a navigation system to guide you along your way. Let’s call this your path.” “You must have a realistic evaluation of your starting point. What do you know? What don’t you know?…
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Never Have a Lack of Goals
“If you’re bored with life – you don’t get up every morning with a burning desire to do things – you don’t have enough goals.” – Lou Holtz Having goals that we are passionate about gives us something to look forward to each and every morning when we wake up. Not having goals is an excellent recipe for average living. *** “You need to have a specific ultimate goal. Let’s say you want to win an Olympic gold medal in swimming in the 200-meter freestyle. You have a specific ultimate goal, which is a good start because you know your final destination. When I was in graduate school in biology…
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Lombardi Quote
“Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.” – Vince Lombardi An excerpt from How To Become The Best at Anything. “To become the best takes practice, lots and lots of practice. It takes about 10,000 hours of practice to get really good at something and not just any type of practice, deliberate practice. Deliberate practice is practicing at getting better every time you practice. Note: The number of hours you will need to practice from the start of your journey may vary depending on the area/domain and how much expertise you have already developed.” “The classic example is a man who has gone golfing almost every weekend…
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Follow Your Passion
How is your career going? Is it working out well? What are your latest achievements? What goals haven’t been reached? If the answers aren’t satisfactory, it’s time to make some dramatic changes. If your work doesn’t make your heart sing, it’s time to find something that does. Life isn’t a dress rehearsal. Get going! *** “Passion will help you get up and out and practice. Passion will keep you going through adversity… Your passion will be your motivation along your path to becoming the best at whatever you choose.” “Don’t have a passion, then what are you interested in? Interest and achievement go hand in hand. It is easier to…
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The Expertise Model and USPSA & IPSC
Below is an analysis of how the article The Top 9 Things I Have Learned as a Professional Shooter, by Michael Seeklander, fits into the Expertise Model set forth in my book How to Become the Best at Anything. To better understand the Expertise Model read the bog post HowToBecomeTheBest.com/the-expertise-model or better, the book. Michael Seeklander wrote an excellent article. Please read the entire article. Michael puts an emphasis on deliberate practice and learning in his article. Deliberate practice will lead to the automation of actions, automaticity. You don’t want to have to consciously think about something when you are operating at high speeds. Deliberate practice will help you develop…
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The Expertise Model
An Outline What you need to become really good at something or become the best. From How to Become the Best at Anything by Glenn K Seki. Passion and Interest If you have an interest in something, it can grow into something more than an interest. It may grow into a passion as you pursue your interest. Usually an interest is just that, an interest, it will help motivate you to achieve in that particular domain up to a point. You might become very good at your interest, although you need to be passionate about something to become the best. More – HowToBecomeTheBest.com/passion-and-interest Talent You do not necessarily need talent,…
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Never too Old
If you have a passion for something or have an interest, you’re never too old to develop expertise. You may have some physical limitations, but you can work around them. Set your goals accordingly. I have arthritis in most of my joints due to my youthful pursuit of judo, boxing, and aikido from the ages of 7-17. I have a heart condition, glaucoma, and many other age-related conditions. My vision is very poor, I’m just able to pass the vision test at the DMV, however, this does not stop me from pursuing my interests and passions, it just puts limitations on them. At the age of 54 I decided that…
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Productions
How you learn something new An excerpt from How To Become The Best at Anything. Productions are procedures and classifications. This is the biggie! This is what you are trying to do to gain high levels of expertise. You want to automate procedures and classifications, so you don’t have to consciously think about them. Going back to the example of driving a car, you don’t have to consciously think about all the little things that it takes to drive a car in traffic because you have automated a set of procedures. Going back to the chair example, you can look at something and know it is a chair without consciously…
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Automaticity
How you learn something new An excerpt from How To Become The Best at Anything. Deliberate practice results in the automation of a sequence of steps. It is automated so you don’t have to consciously think about it while you are doing it, you just do it. Some people call this “muscle memory.” I don’t like this term since muscles have no memory. Repeat after me, “muscles have no memory.” This automated sequence of steps is in your memory, in your brain. Your brain places this automated sequence of steps into nice and neat “chunks,” so you do not have to consciously think about them. Remember when you were first…
