Sustain Thought-Filled Practice

There are books and then there are books.

The finest book I've ever read on generating great performances is Development of Professional Expertise, which is edited and partly written by Dr. Anders Ericsson. He has spent more than thirty years studying great performers in chess, ballet, the military, education, medicine, and so on. You can learn more about it here.

This is the most comprehensive and in-depth book on how to develop great performances I've ever come across. It is over 450 pages with intense chapters written by a couple of dozen experts on how to perform at a very high level. One main idea that runs throughout the book is called deliberate practice. I think of it more as "sustaining thought-filled practice" because it involves both doing something and thinking about what is happening before, during, and after it occurs.

The Components of Sustaining Thought-Filled Practice

1. Identify the role you have passion and strengths for doing.
2. Clarify the 5-6 critical aspects of that role.
3. Create simulations of the actual performance that allow you to focus on improving one or more of the role's critical aspects.
4. Gain relevant feedback on the simulated performance in a timely manner.
5. Consider the feedback and make adjustments.
6. Sustain your effort for long periods of time.

In a way all of this seems so obvious. It's basically the formula for success in youth sports and in learning to play the piano and in doing math homework. The world's greatest performers take this formula to the highest level. They refine the steps and reapply them over and over and over for more than 10,000 hours.