“Practice makes perfect.”

1. Do something you think can work.
2. Observe results.
3. Assess results against intention.
4. Update your approach, if necessary, or keep doing what’s working.
5. Repeat.

“The separation of talent and skill is one of the greatest misunderstood concepts for people who are trying to excel, who have dreams, who want to do things. Talent you have naturally. Skill is only developed by hours and hours and hours of beating on your craft.”

–Will Smith

“Perfect practice makes perfect.”

“Practice” is a reminder that all skills must be developed.

You have to practice before you will master an idea, a concept, or a skill.

You have to monitor progress against your intention if you wish to continue to improve.

Practicing a skill will make no difference, or can even hinder your progress, if you’re practicing the wrong skill for your intention.

“Have patience. All things are difficult before they become easy.”

–Saadi Shirazi

If you are fortunate, you will succeed on the first try.

But more likely, you will not…

If you are human, and if you are operating at the limit of your current potential, the results of your first attempts may not meet your highest aspirations.

Sometimes, it will seem like you have failed miserably.

“Success isn’t permanent, and failure isn’t fatal.”

–Mike Ditka

8 Keys to Success

As you practice, do so with the following intentions. Take the following actions.

1. Foster a generous, kind, helpful, grateful, continuous improvement mindset in all members of your team.
2. Practice with the intention to improve.
3. Consider all first efforts a pilot, as an experiment.
4. After early attempts and failed attempts, do a retrospective. Find what elements worked, as well as those that did not. Resolve to continue doing the things that worked, and identify what you can do next time instead of the things that didn’t work.
5. Measure results. Don’t just guess or assume learning or mastery is occurring.
6. Celebrate successes, no matter how small. Every little win is a step in the direction of overall success!
7. Don’t get upset over setbacks or perceived failures. “Fail your way to success.” Have fun. Excessive stress, including pressure to learn or perform (even if it’s just perceived pressure), reduces learning effectiveness as well as resolve to continue.
8. After retrospectives, create a new Plan, being sure to keep the things that worked, and revising the things that didn’t. Then make another attempt.

“Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.”

“Never give up on something that you can’t go a day without thinking about.”

“Never, never, never give up.”
― Winston Churchill

“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.”

–J.K. Rowling

Practice

• Take action every day!
• Continue to carry out your Plans.
  • Revise Plans as necessary.
  • Revise Policies, Agreements, and other PowerBoard documents as necessary.
• Reach out for help immediately, when you need it. For example:
  • Support
  • Your Coach
  • Facebook group and members
  • Mastermind group/members
  • Friends
  • Family
  • Committed Listener

Next: Click This Link and Claim Your Power

For more information

• Let Your Thoughts Make You Rich
• Practice for Knowledge Acquisition (Not Drill and Kill). Designing activities with the goal of transferring knowledge.
• Spaced Repetition
• The Differences Between Skill, Ability and Technique in Fitness
• The Beginner’s Guide to Deliberate Practice
• Make 1 change at a time
• How we are programmed in childhood (and how to overcome it)
• Quick Tip: Repetition = Retention
• Winston Churchill quotes via Goodreads.com
• Mini-bios are excerpted from Wikipedia.com
  • Will Smith
  • Mike Ditka
  • Winston Churchill
  • J.K. Rowling
• ‘Focus on fun’: Reversing the trend of broken New Year’s resolutions

Photo Credits

• Rock climber: Photo by Amanda Perez on Unsplash.
• Saadi Shirazi in a rose garden: Attributed to Govardhan – newsdesk.si.edu, Public Domain, Link.
• Mike Ditka: By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Jason J. Perry – http://www.navy.mil/view_image.asp?id=38816, Public Domain, Link
• Will Smith: By Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link.
• Winston Churchill wears a helmet during air raid warning: By Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/churchill/images/wc0107-04780r.jpg – Library of Congress, Public Domain, Link.
• J.K. Rowling: By Daniel Ogren – Flickr: 100405_EasterEggRoll_683, CC BY 2.0, Link.
• Woman doing pull-up: Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash.