Practice LIKE A BOSS!

Just like a cowboy learning the skills of horsemanship, he has to put some serious “time in the saddle” to hone his craft. Others may say woodchopping, grinding it out, sweating, habit forming, training or repetition; call it whatever you want but it all comes down to PRACTICE, PRACTICE PRACTICE! Many have heard of the famous theory that it takes “10,000 hours to master a skill”, this phrase was coined by the author Malcolm Gladwell. I have read his book and he did have many logical arguments for his theories and listed below are some of the techniques I am using on my journey to 10,000 hours and the pursuit of mastering songwriting, guitar playing, piano tickling, music production and photography. Of course, most of these strategies can be used for whatever skill you want to get badass at in life!

1. FREQUENCY OVER LENGTH OF TIME: I am a big believer in small intense doses of practice rather than infrequent but long sessions of practice. For example, I would rather songwrite for 15-30 mins everyday than do it once every Sunday for 3.5 hours. For me there is something about frequent, short bursts that keeps my mind fresh, focused and excited for the next practice session. A person can also really observe and feel themselves getting better with this type of practice which feeds into one’s confidence. This theory has even been proven in the health and fitness regimen with experts saying frequent but intense and short bursts of exercise are very healthy for humans.

2. TIME BLOCKING: This practice strategy goes hand and hand with the frequent focused bursts of practice. We all have a smart phone and it’s a great tool for giving us some self-discipline. When you are about to do a short burst practice session grab your smart phone and set a timer for 15,30,45 or 60 minutes. By providing a window of time for our practice routine it gives our brains a sense of urgency, focus, commitment, intention and if you are doing something that you don’t enjoy that much most humans can power through the challenge if they know the time when it will end.

3. COMPLIMENTARY SKILLS: This is one of my favorite practice ideas as many elite athletes use this strategy to get better at their focused sport. This idea suggests using complimentary techniques to get better at your main skill. Although these supportive techniques are different they work at developing the peripheral skills to the main skill. For example – a complimentary practice skill to songwriting would be to chart out timeless and past hit songs to see how those songs were written and by doing that you learn key elements and common themes of writing a great timeless song. For guitar scales maybe it’s chunking those scales out on piano to visualize and see the scales in a different way which then enlightens your brain to map them out on the guitar fretboard easier. For music production skills a complimentary practice would be to map out on a DAW in midi a drum pattern that you really like in another song.

4. LEARN BY DOING: The farming and agriculture club called 4H has a saying of “learn by doing”. I love this motto and I truly believe this is one of the BEST WAYS to learn, practice and ultimately get better at anything. Get in the weeds, role your sleeves up, get dirty and learn it by doing it. One of the big obstacles that keeps many people from taking this initiative is the fear of failure and making mistakes. To remedy that I would add to the 4H saying by including “learn by doing and IT’S OKAY TO MAKE LOTS OF MISTAKES”.

5. MANAGE EXPECTATIONS: There are thousands of videos on youtube telling and selling everybody a QUICK AND EASY way to be great at just about everything. The ugly truth is for “most” people to gain skills, knowledge and technique at anything it takes time, perseverance, grit and hard work. Whenever taking on a new challenge and practicing towards getting better manage your expectations for your growth. Your journey will not be linear and sometimes you will improve really quick and at other stages it will almost seem like you are standing still. To keep plowing forward through this manage your expectations, remember you are human and enjoy the pursuit of continuous and never-ending improvement.

6. KEEP IT LIGHT-HEARTED: While practicing to reach your goals I think it’s really important to keep it fun as that’s hopefully at least half the reason why you are chasing those goals in the first place – that you enjoy it!! Some simple aspects like having a good attitude, teaching other people your skills, inspiring others, laughing lots and being okay with “sucking” can really help to keep you practicing and having fun while doing it.

7. BE A CREATOR: More than likely if you are practicing and trying to get better at something you are a CREATOR at heart. For me, this is one of the biggest messages to keep you practicing because it is better TO BE A CREATOR IN THIS WORLD RATHER THAN A CONSUMER. Whether it be a creator of art, entertainment, value, crafts or anything when you are a creator you are ADDING value to the world – when you are a consumer you are subtracting and taking value from the world. Yes, it is key to have both aspects for the balance to work but I think you need to be a creator first and add value before you can think about taking value.

Stay in tune and in touch and keep on PRACTICING!

Cheers,

Kent