Folks,

Let's start with an easy question: What's the difference between an elite and a novice performer?

You might think, as I did, that the elite performer is better at the task at hand because they are consistent in their action. The job of practice is to grease the groove. Maybe some 10,000 hours later, you have a fluid, consistent action. 

Nikolai Bernstein didn't think so; in fact, he pretty much blew the idea of consistent practice out of the water. 

The elite performer arrives at the end point of the task in a consistent manner, but how they get there is anything but consistent. Take a look at the picture below. What do you notice?

The path of the hammer in this picture varies each time. Yet the endpoint—that's consistent. We don’t step into the same river twice; an elite performer will produce a multitude of course corrections to achieve a desired outcome. 

What does that mean for you and me? Well, for one, all starting points are equally valid. Secondly, we don’t need to get so hung up on the “perfect” rep of whatever task we are doing. 

Finally, I’m going to leave you with a rather fantastic clip from a graphic design studio owner who thought giving his staff a bigger office or better jobs was the answer to employee happiness, until it dawned on him that the biggest promise he could make to his staff was that he wouldn't waste their time.

Here's to a meaningful practice this week.

Simon

P.S. If the email above has inspired you, I’d love to hear what you're working on. Just hit reply to this email. And if you have a friend who you think would find this content useful, feel free to hit the share button.