You’ve all seen the superstars getting all the attention. I’m not necessarily talking about Metallica or Kobe Bryant, but also people like Leo Babauta or Erez Lieberman, for that matter. Or that valedictorian quarterback which is a genuine nice girl while hitting home-runs at all fields in life.
I’ve been spending quite a bit of time lately looking in the direction of Cal Newport, and his Study Hacks blog. After conducting a thorough review, and of course doing all the number crunching and analysis, the results are in: Cal gets it. I’m not going to pretend to have done my performance-research in the manner he has, but I’ve been starting to build my very brief plan for getting really good at stuff.
OK, I’ll for the sake of the argument ignore that there are just 24 hours in a day, and that “stuff”, whatever that might be to you, isn’t the only thing on your todo-list for any given day. I’ll continue by ignoring the fact that you’ll somehow need to come up with what you desire to become very good at, and I’ll top it off with ignoring anything called abilities and talent, and just state that you have it. Most of the time, if not all, you actually do. You might not know it, but you do.
OK, so this plan has more holes in it than swiss cheese, but it’s a place to start. If you can’t think of an example from your own life right now, join mine – as one of my main goals this year is to run Oslo Marathon in less than 03:30.
Running
- Set a goal: Measureable, as specific as possible, and somewhat realistic. At least, make it within the reach of physics and other sciences. 01:00 would not have been realistic. “Faster than before” is not as specific as I would like, and “Fast” would just have been a bad goal. But, yeah, I got my 03:30 target. Check!
- Create milestones: Subgoals, on your way to the ultimate goal. Makes sure you are on track to kicking your goal’s rear end. For my part, I’ve lined up three half marathons from now to the start of September. Each with a goal time (01:45, 01:40 and 01:35, if you’re curios). They give me something close and specific to work against, creating some positive pressure.
- Create a plan between each of your milestones: If you just go to the gym and pick up any weights which looks appealing that day, I will bet you that you won’t see much of a progress. If I decide to just consider each day if I feel like running today or not, and for how long, I am not going to reach my goal. No way.Instead, have a specific and well thought-through plan what you’ll do each day. Make it count. Each day, or at least more often than not, make it uncomfortable. Strive for higher levels each time.
- Stick through the tough times: Even though you in general enjoy your picked activity, you will not always do so. Make sure you stick to your plan even when you don’t “feel like practicing”. Either that, or sit back and watch anything becoming a valid excuse for not following your plan. “I should have worked out today, but I was busy sleeping in”.Case in point. Today, after an 11 hour course day, we have 5 degrees celcius and some light rain. Yes, coca cola and TV was more tempting, but I did do a run. That’s the only way I know that will get me out the door the next time the weather is miserable, and I can find so many excuses that I don’t know which one to pick.