3 — Game of Minds
“Practice makes perfect but not all practice is made equal.” (V. Snow, 2017)
When we learn to play any sport, we are told we must practice. We practice by doing. A Goal Shooter in a netball team shoots hoops from all around the ring, with fake opponents and on one foot. It is a universal truth that to become a great athlete you must train. Yet when it comes to our work we seem to forget basic game principles.
If you want to be a better shooter then you don’t just watch the greats on TV or study the theory of goal shooting but rather you spend most of your time out on the court throwing the ball at the hoop. The brain is a versatile organ which is adapts in the face of repetition, however, if your practicing for a speech solely by reading your notes then you aren’t doing it justice. For any of you that have had to give a speech and practiced it verbally beforehand you will know that the first time you orally present the linguistic masterpiece in your head comes out like a drunk wedding speech. This is because the area of your brain that deals with written words is different to that which deals with the spoken word. To put it simply, practice in the same format as you are to perform. If you are giving a speech then you must practice orally. If you are a dancer then you practice through dance and if you are studying for an exam do it in silence.
This is not to say that you dedicate yourself solely to that medium through which you intend to perform. Aerial skiers use visualization to practice their jumps as this has proven to activate brain areas involved in the motor performance of the jump itself. If you are to give a presentation then visualization can be a nifty tool. Memory is more accurate if you are in the same environment you learnt particular information when you try to recall it. When you visualize yourself in the same environment and rehearse in detail what you must perform you assist the brain by creating flexible pathways to recall that information or those actions. The brain says “ahhh… here we go, I know this” and akin to muscle memory the actions flow more easily.
Who would of thought that day dreaming could be such a powerful tool! Technically speaking visualisation isn’t day dreaming it’s something more aligned with episodic future thinking (imagining a point in the future) which is used to assist in goal attainment. There are a few things to remember when using visualisation,
Always, have a backup plan. Things can always take a turn for the worse but the good news is you can practice for this too. Training for things to go right is effective but training for all realistic eventualities is masterful. Just like you would practice answering curly interview questions, run through what you might do if things don’t go your way. A great example of this is difficult conversations. Personally, I imagine mini avatars in my mind and play out difficult conversations like a cartoon. I proceed to play out all the different variations of this conversation putting myself in the other persons shoes and trying to predict how they might react. This way I can practice how I would respond.
Having a Plan B’ is also a way to alleviate stress which can assist in finding flow and improving performance. As a realist, I have a rather specific method for creating a backup plan. My personal methodology is to create options A’ thru C’. With any significant event or occasion I come up with three likely outcomes, A’ is the optimal or ideal outcome, B’ is the most likely outcome given the circumstances and C’ is the less than optimal outcome I would expect if things went pear shaped. With these options in mind (A, B and C), I hope for A, expect B and prepare for C.
Practice is not supposed to feel comfortable and perhaps that why sports teams call it training instead. Practice is intentional, focused and strategic. It is not enough to practice in a repetitive manner as this conflates practice with progress. Deliberate practice is effortful and as such not inherently pleasurable, however, it is the most efficient way to maximise learning and skill development. Being strategic in the way you prepare means utilising all the skills discussed thus far.
