Effort matters but it is focused practice which is the key to improving any skill. A common misconception is that practice simply means doing something a lot of times. What we mean by practice is that you focus your effort on a specific weakness, fix it, focus on the next weakness, and so on. When you just go through the motions your effort can produce very little results. As you focus on a well-defined goal you are able to divide a big problem into smaller, solvable steps, and you are able to make significant progress in less time.
Discipline and curiosity are not mutually exclusive, and practice can be both highly structured and exploratory at the same time. Without discipline, it’s unlikely that every practice session will contribute to improvement in the long run. Without curiosity, it’s unlikely that you will maintain motivation to put in the time required. So, what is practice? In the words of Josh Kaufman, it’s a purposeful selection of what to work on, a focused effort to improve, and feedback on how to improve further.
In addition to having a clear goal and being disciplined and motivated, focused practice requires getting feedback on what you are doing and making adjustments based on that feedback. If you are simply going through the motions without paying attention to whether you are making progress toward your goal you will not improve quickly. You will probably even repeat the same mistakes over and over without realizing it. As you pay attention to the results of your effort you will get better at distinguishing between what works and what doesn’t. And you will be able to direct your effort in such a way that it makes a difference.
As we discussed in the previous chapter, practice also requires mental presence. What distinguishes simple repetition from focused practice is that while your body goes through the motions your mind can simply be on autopilot. But practice requires mental engagement, the ability to direct attention and solve problems. Repetition and mental effort together form long-term motor skills and other kinds of automatic responses.
Finally, practice produces emotional benefit. We think of practice as drudgery. But that’s because we’re doing it wrong. What you practice is what you get better at. When practice is focused, it allows you to direct your effort in such a way that you improve rapidly. So, what should you practice? What are the skills which you need to focus on to get what you want? How do you know that you are focusing on the right things? How can you direct your effort to get the best results?