Deliberate practice is something I’ve been thinking about and practicing for the last 5 or so years. Self-help resources I read often reference the importance of deliberate practice directly, or describe what is effectively the same thing. A shortcut for me to be mindful about deliberate practice is using the pomodoro split to really drill down on an task with intention. I’ll write down my intention before the pomodoro session and I’ll make a rule not to indulge my distractions and curiosities if they’ll disrupt my practice. Instead, I’ll have a notepad or text app open to write down my random, intrusive thoughts as they come up and I can look at those on my breaks, or some other time.
Learning about the ‘growth mindset’ truly changed my life. Around the same time, or a few years before I learned about deliberate practice, I stumbled across the ‘growth mindset’ concept. I used to (and maybe still do) sometimes beat myself up when I’m not immediately a genius at a new task or skill. I’d get frustrated when seeing how well others perform and shame myself for not measuring up. Nowadays, I realized that most people can become exceptionally proficient at most things and those at the upper echelon are almost always the ones who spent the most time (hours) deliberately practicing and refining their craft. Talent, interest, and resources are three other factors that can have a profound impact on how much time one would spend deliberately practicing and staying resilient when running into roadblocks.