A Virtuous Circle of Improvement

Sustained Effort Creates a Virtuous Circle of Deliberate Improvement

Get Better, Faster

How do you get better, faster in an important skill, sport, or endeavor?

Rapid improvement is a key benefit of a deliberate approach to practice, debriefing and planning. The good news is that there’s a building set of research that shows humans can greatly accelerate the pace at which they get better at a skill and reach levels of performance that previously were unimaginable.

When you practice in a mindful, deliberate manner and invest time to debrief, there are many levels of reward for your effort, including accelerated improvement.

Accelerated Improvement Requires a Deliberate Approach

When you review, re-imagine, write about, draw-up, or diagram what happened in a practice, several good things happen:

1. You deepen your learning. As your brain considers what worked and what didn’t, you build new neural connections and strengthen (or accelerate) the links between existing connections in your brain. This enhances your capabilities — refines a movement, increases your pattern recognition, or acclerates your reactions.
2. You identify new areas to practice or explore. Often, I’ve observed that during a debrief, people have some of their best insights into what needs to be practiced next. Areas that require attention become clearer during a debrief. Capturing these ideas, through writing or drawing, provides a crisp picture of next steps and also begins the process of practicing them.
3. You will find that your next practice sessions involve a more concious approach as you reflect on what you discovered, or emphasized in your previous debrief.

These steps compose the virtuous circle of practice, debrief, identifcation of what’s next and then more practice.

Deliberate effort creates a virtuous circle of improvement

This cycle works for physical training, intellectual pursuits, individual, and team pursuits — basically, anything that requires you to train your brain — which of course is nearly everything…

Accelerated Learning

Getting better faster is a key benefit of the virtuous circle. The key to acceleration, is deliberate practice or training, accompanied by thoughtful debriefing. This kind of effort does not happen by accident. It requires a thoughtful, energetic, and sustained approach.

If you’re passionate enough about the skill you want to get better at, you can summon the commitment and dedication to generate a deliberate and virtuous cycle.