3 Ways To Master A Skill The Right Way
Shane Parrish shares these principles for developing your craft faster.
To become great in any skill, we must dedicate time and repetition to our craft.
But we also need to know that not all repetitions are created equal.
To develop a skill effectively, we need focused repetitions in a variety of situations so we can collect quality feedback to make us better.
“We are remarkably inefficient at skill development. Understanding the nuances of how repetitions, situations, and feedback interconnect offers us a few small changes that lead to remarkable improvements in skill acquisition.” — Shane Parrish
Shane Parrish (entrepreneur and host of The Knowledge Project podcast) shares 3 steps to accelerate development in any skill:
- Increase the speed of the game
- Focus on principles vs. techniques
- Seek high-quality feedback
Here’s how to tackle each step to unlock higher velocity in our skill development.
1) Increase the speed of the game
The more repetitions you perform in a shorter time, the more feedback you’ll gain and the more variety of situations you’ll face.
You can increase the speed by setting constraints:
- Shorten the time limit
- Limit physical space
- Limit resources
Brazil’s soccer team practices using a game called futebol de salão, which allows players to get 600% more touches than a traditional soccer practice.
They achieve this by playing on a field the size of a basketball court (limited physical space) and having 5 players on a team instead of 11 (limited resources).
2) Focus on principles vs. techniques
When we only focus on learning specific techniques, we lose an understanding of the underlying purpose of what we’re trying to accomplish.
By focusing on the principles, we build a big-picture view of what truly matters in developing a skill, and we use techniques as resources rather than the source.
Using strength training as an example, someone focused on techniques might spend their energy perfecting their bench press form.
Meanwhile, someone focused on principles will spend their energy on showing up consistently, gradually adding more weight to their exercises, and getting plenty of rest.
Who do you think will get stronger faster?
3) Seek high-quality feedback
Improve the quality of internal feedback by observing your repetitions against the result you want to achieve.
Improve the quality of external feedback by working with coaches who focus on understanding you as a person vs. only telling you what to do and not do.
Many coaches apply their own ego and worldview to their teaching, so it’s crucial to take feedback from those who focus on your journey and not their own.
Greatness comes from a series of tiny, consistent improvements over a long time.
If we apply these steps to developing skills we want to master, we build a stable foundation that’ll allow us to accelerate our learning and growth.
You can read Shane Parrish’s blog article here.
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