3102: What "Peak"ed My Curiosity and Is Making Me Strive for More by Helene Massicotte of Free to Pursue

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[00:01:30] tomorrow starts with a good night's sleep. Just search for Good Sleep in your podcast app and be sure to pick the one from Optimal Living Daily. This is Optimal Living Daily episode 3102, What Piqued My Curiosity and Is Making Me Strive for More? by Elen Massikot of freetopersoo.com.

[00:01:50] And I'm your narrator, Justin Mollick. Welcome to Optimal Living Daily, OLD for short, where I read the best blogs to you with permission from the authors, covering productivity, minimalism, personal development, all that fun stuff. And with that, let's get right to our next

[00:02:06] post as we optimize your life. What Piqued My Curiosity and Is Making Me Strive for More? by Elen Massikot of freetopersoo.com. I just finished reading Pique, Secrets from the New Science of

[00:02:25] Expertise by Anders Ericsson and Robert Poole. I read a lot of books but there are a few that I include in the category I call life enhancing. And I'll be adding this one to the list.

[00:02:38] I first heard about the book on episode 244 of the Freakonomics Radio podcast titled How to Become Great at Just About Anything this past April. Stephen Dubner was interviewing Anders Ericsson about the book and its main concept, deliberate practice. The short of it is that

[00:02:56] if you practice the right way and with the right support, you can get better at just about anything, no matter your age and no matter your skill level or innate abilities. In the book,

[00:03:08] Ericsson also invites us to revisit our beliefs in natural talent and prodigies. He argues that in every case, what appears to be natural talent is the result of exposure to an environment and

[00:03:22] to practice habits that are not the norm. That's a powerful statement that puts many pursuits back in the realm of the possible for most of us. In order to improve in any area, Ericsson makes it

[00:03:35] clear that individuals need to meet the following conditions. Have a plan, follow a schedule including a good night's sleep, have measurable goals, engage in deliberate practice often with the help of a coach or teacher, and showcasing your skills at some point as this fuels your practice, it's the

[00:03:55] payoff. The book has led me to look at a number of things I do or aspire to do and to question personal beliefs regarding my abilities and limitations. It's led me to consider my potential in these areas quite differently. It's both thrilling and terrifying at the same time.

[00:04:14] I guess these feelings always follow realization of the burden or opportunity of taking personal responsibility. It's been the most powerful vehicle thus far to enable me to challenge my self-limiting beliefs. I either have to decide not to get better at something because I don't want to,

[00:04:33] it's not a priority, not because I can't, or decide to get better and make a thoughtful plan to get there. My plan for deliberate practice. I've reviewed my wish list and discarded many

[00:04:47] activities as things I don't want to get better at and have honed on four skills or abilities that I want to work on because I know I'm likely to stick with the process and reap the benefits

[00:04:59] of the improvement. Writing, speaking, strength training, and archery. I already do all of these things but I haven't focused on getting better and that's the key. The power is in the word deliberate. Just going through the motions doesn't make us better. There's nothing particularly wrong

[00:05:19] with doing something we enjoy but expecting improvement just by going through the motions is a fallacy most of us believe. I certainly thought it at least helped. I was wrong. In fact, it can make us worse. To illustrate the tenets of deliberate practice, I've elaborated on my plan

[00:05:39] for each of these activities and expect to keep at these throughout the year, assuming I don't choose to hang up my skates on any of them. Number one, writing. Five days a week, 2300 word minimum.

[00:05:53] I write on most days but I've been avoiding a challenging project in favor of other writing because it's pushing me out of my comfort zone. What's the challenge? Writing chapters as opposed

[00:06:06] to blog posts. I've set a 50,000 word goal for the month of June to work on this challenging project and I'll be measuring my daily output. Why 50,000? Because it'll enable me to finish the project and

[00:06:19] to likely write far more than I need to. I've reached 18,700 so far. The more I push myself to write, the easier it should become and the closer I'll get to my goal of finishing the project.

[00:06:32] Here's how I'll make time for this endeavor. If I'm not at least on track toward 50,000, I don't get to write or read anything else. Now that's incentive to really get into the groove and get over this mental block or fear of success that's holding me back.

[00:06:50] How will I measure quality? I'll be working with an editor as soon as I'm done and they'll help me improve the first draft and the second and the third, knowing there will be eyes on this work

[00:07:01] at the end of this period is a great way of staying honest with myself. Plus, she sounds brutal. Perfect. Number two, speaking. One hour, two days a week plus speech preparation. I do a fair amount

[00:07:16] of speaking, I always have, but what I find doesn't happen often is receiving constructive feedback from co-workers, superiors, clients and audience members. Only the ones who like what I do will tell me face to face and very few people leave constructive comments on evaluation sheets.

[00:07:37] That's why I decided to join Toastmasters after being away for nearly 10 years. I've shopped around for Toastmasters clubs and I've found one that suits my needs. It's close to home, the meeting

[00:07:48] time fits my schedule, and more importantly I know that some of the members I've met will help me stretch my speaking and presentation skills. Ironically, it's called peak performers. Can't make this up. I'll be working through the advanced communication library and my goal is to complete

[00:08:06] two of the booklets this year, a total of 10 speeches, documenting and paying attention to incorporating the feedback I receive as I move along. Given the audience, I know I'll push myself and then be able to bring best practices into my external speaking engagements. Number three,

[00:08:24] strength training. One hour, four days a week. As I've mentioned in a previous post, back in March, my appendix decided it didn't like me anymore. That's led to time away from my training. I've

[00:08:38] been active but there's a difference between being active and lifting really heavy things. I want to at least get back to what I used to lift. I'll be measuring my progress based on whether or not

[00:08:50] I've reached or exceeded my previous personal bests. I'll be tracking my progress toward the following, 135 pound bench press, 245 pound deadlift, 160 pound back squat, 103 pound overhead squat, 100 pound snatch, and 125 pound clean and jerk. I'm currently at about 60 to 75 percent of each

[00:09:13] of these, in part due to my need to be cautious. I'll be touching on each of these lifts regularly with four gym sessions per week, focusing on the weaknesses in each lift and taking care to be

[00:09:24] careful not to hurt myself in the process, given it takes up to six months to be fully recovered from surgery. And number four, archery. One hour, three days a week. Before my unexpected time off,

[00:09:39] I was quite enjoying my time at the archery range, but I wasn't progressing and if anything, I was likely getting sloppier. I've been back since but I know I need some guidance to improve

[00:09:51] and I want to prepare for a competition. Though I'm late in the game for a competition this year, I've signed up for coaching at Heartland Archery, my second lesson is today, and want to learn about

[00:10:02] proper scoring to track my progress. My goal is to improve my practicing weaknesses identified at each of my at least monthly coaching sessions and using my scoring to track that progress.

[00:10:15] Note, as a taste of what's to come, I was at the range yesterday and was shocked at how tired I was after spending one hour paying close attention to what I was doing. I used to spend two or more

[00:10:26] hours at a time but it's the level of focus that makes the difference. Quality over quantity matters. Tracking and reporting is key. I've started a booklet or spreadsheet for each of these four activities to track my personal progress and I'll document it here to share

[00:10:44] how my application of Erickson's principles helps me get further along than I likely would have with the status quo. I'm looking forward to learning more about deliberate practice and what I can accomplish through its use. You just listened to the post titled,

[00:11:04] What piqued my curiosity and is making me strive for more by Elen Massikot of freetopersoo.com and I'll be right back with my commentary. Thank you to Elen for this one. An interesting quote

[00:11:16] in there that stuck with me. She said, I already do all of these things but I haven't focused on getting better and that's the key. The power is in the word deliberate. Just going through the

[00:11:27] motions doesn't make us better. There's nothing particularly wrong with doing something we enjoy but expecting improvement just by going through the motions is a fallacy most of us believe. I certainly thought it would at least help but I was wrong. In fact, it can make us worse.

[00:11:44] This reminds me of something I've gotten back into more recently which is drumming. I used to drum in a band in the year 2000 or so but once I started working full-time it kind of fell off

[00:11:56] but I picked it back up a couple decades later and I think I brought up this example before but bear with me. When it comes to practicing, when I was in a band or even when not in a band,

[00:12:09] I generally play to songs that I already knew. Ones that I found fun to play to or ones that we wrote in the band and that's good at least I'm playing but what Elen talked about in this article

[00:12:22] is so true. Going through the motions isn't really making me better per se. Maybe a tiny bit but like she said it could also make me worse because it could reinforce certain bad habits

[00:12:36] like how I'm hitting the drum or keeping a certain drum fill sloppy instead of intentionally and deliberately working through it. I think this could be said for many different hobbies or activities like she mentioned so it's really something to think about. What's something

[00:12:53] you would like to improve and how can you make the practice a bit more deliberate? But that should do it for today. Hope you're having a great morning, afternoon or evening whenever you're listening to this and I'll see you tomorrow where your optimal life awaits.