Deliberate Practice

Impressions of Anders Ericcson's (and Robert Pool) work

It's kinda a book review, but I'm using the book to create my brain-training plan for the Tour Divide. And I am learning how to consistently write again in ways that aren’t just word rambles about my feelings. Additionally, I want to stop writing like a “poor person.” Sometimes, I sell my words to online publications (and they tend to be my best works) because I want to make a quick buck. Often selling for just a few hundred dollars, I almost always feel like I under asked. But I am learning to trust myself, to invest in the longer term, and use this skill (writing) that I’ve practiced, (for more than 10,000 hours) to bring some security to my financial health!

Rebuilding My Approach to Training

I am on a journey to become the best athlete that I can be. Rebuilding my entire approach to training has included reading articles and listening to books on topics ranging from psychology to philosophy. I’ve holistically opened myself to utilizing what I understand from years of studying biochemistry to my epigenetic ancestral knowledge of life as an Anishinaabe person. I seek different results, and thus, I need to take a different path.

While researching the concept of becoming an expert, I came across the name Anders Ericsson. Although some of it was a wee bit eye-rolly, I still found myself finishing the book Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise. The book could have been half as long,and I could have done without his description of his process of trying to convince his editors of the specifics of “deliberate practice” (a term he is very proud of coining). I suspect because he wrote mostly about musicians, I glazed over a bit and found the constant comparisons and study highlights of musicians to be drawn-out. However, he made some incredibly valuable points that led to a very productive takeaway for me.