I read an article on Kathy Sierra blog that had me nodding, while giving me extra encouragement to work on concentration and determination to reach for my goals.

Now I was always under the impression that you can’t be good at everything, and definitely to be a hot shot you had to start as a kid. Your parents had to be behind you and shout abuse from the side of the tennis court. I believed that being the best really was a life long pursuit that started out when one was still a toddler.

As Kathy Sierra says “It turns out that rather than being naturally gifted at music or math or chess or whatever, a superior performer most likely has a gift for concentration, dedication, and a simple desire to keep getting better”

From what Kathy is saying it is within our ability to become a high achiever and even world class if we put our mind to something.

Now it is all good and well to decide that I want to be a world class runner and I get out there with hours of determination and practice running around my neighborhood each evening after work. That is not that difficult for me to do. I enjoy running. I enjoy running longer distances especially. I have found that I am really no good at short distance fast sprint running.

This is where the type of practice makes a difference. Sam Snede one of the five most rated golfers in the last century said that it was fun smashing the ball off the tee with the driver seeing it fly off, however it was in the bunker with the sand and the grit blowing in your face that the practice was needed that made him a winner.

Dr. K. Anders Ericsson who has studied the geniuses, prodigies, and superior performers for the last 20 years says in his book The New Brain said this

“For the superior performer the goal isn’t just repeating the same thing again and again but achieving higher levels of control over every aspect of their performance. That’s why they don’t find practice boring. Each practice session they are working on doing something better than they did the last time.”

It is a difference in practice perception. It is not enough to enjoy running and therefore keep running around the suburb I actually need to find the weak areas in my running and spend concentrated effort in practicing pushing myself in areas that I find as not as enjoyable. It is when I start to practice in this way that I start seeing improvements.

This applies to much of what we do in business. How do we go about our day?

To be able to excel in our work environment we need to identify where we need practice. Starting with a SWOT analysis can be a good starting point. Once we have identified where we can improve it is a matter of concentration and concerted effort to turn that weakness in to strength. For example face to face marketing can be quite daunting. It is the concentrated effort of practice that will allow us to become good at selling ourselves and our enthusiasm for what we do.

At the end of the day if we are willing to put in more hours practicing the things that we are not so good at, we will probably become an expert. The only question left is how much do we want it?

P.S. Some researchers now believe that the brain can replace itself. Every time you learn something your brain develops another brain cell.