When good enough isn't enough
Deliberate practice and a free guide to get things done
Hello there and welcome to this week’s edition of 10x your mind. I’m launching a brand new section in this newsletter called "Mental booster of the week". Think tools, apps, and even exciting ideas to improve mental clarity. 🧠 Today's mental booster comes courtesy of my friend, Onjae, a brain health and microdose coach. He was very kind to offer us a handy guide for reclaiming focus and clearing brain fog.
Scroll down to get your free copy.
Moving on to this week’s edition. It’s about pushing ourselves in one area to be our best using the smartest technique called deliberate practice. Happy reading ❤️
Even if you're a “content” person, is there one area of life where you crave to be the best you can be? Maybe a skill, a sport, or a business goal, where being good enough isn't enough for you?
Maybe you're a respected leader but you realize that there's much more you can do to bring out the best of your team’s potential. Maybe you are praised for your gym discipline but you’re eyeing 6-packs 6 months down the line! 🏋🏻♀️ Maybe friends and family love your 8/10 sourdough but you yearn for a 10/10 Instagram worthy 🥖 every single time.
If yes, good enough won’t cut it for you. You, my friend, are looking for mastery.
How does one go from "good enough" to "mastery"?
The answer lies in deliberate practice.
It's a special kind of practice, a technique used by the world's best athletes, creatives, leaders, and intellectuals alike. You can use deliberate practice to achieve mastery in any field. Be it writing, designing, programming, people management, leadership, teaching, coaching, nursing, trading, investing, etc.
Let's explore the essential elements of deliberate practice. Before we do, let’s see what it’s not.
Not mindless repetitions
Practice makes perfect?
Not necessarily, especially if it’s the same old same old.
Sticking to a routine is good, but that routine needs to push you a little further each time. e.g., Cranking out the same weights and reps at the gym will definitely keep you toned (better than being a couch potato!), but it won't exactly sculpt those beach-bod dreams.
Deliberate practice is all about stepping up your game every single time.
It's like playing a level-up version of yourself each time you practice. The challenge keeps getting hotter, pushing you to grow and evolve.
Deliberate practice is structured.
You need to have a plan. The plan will change and improve as you go but you need a plan nevertheless that's based on taking you from A to Z. How to make such a structured plan?
This brings us to the essential components of deliberate practice. ⬇️
Learning from the best
Whether you want to grow a forest of Monstera plants in your backyard or want to run a half marathon in under 2 hours, someone has already done it. And the best part is that they’re teaching it for free on YouTube.
Why reinvent the wheel?
There is a reason that the world’s best in the past turns into a norm a few years down the line. Once someone breaks the frame, others follow suit. They replicate the smart ways to train and they learn from their mistakes.
Between comfort zone and panic zone
Tom Senninger, a German educator and adventurer developed a learning model called the Learning Zone Model. According to this model, learning can happen in any of these three zones:
Comfort zone
Learning zone
Panic zone
The comfort zone is when we keep on practicing the same thing with a similar difficulty level. Panic zone is the other extreme. The challenge is so big that the fear keeps us from performing.
Expert learning happens neither when the challenge is absent, nor when it’s too high. Learning zone is when it’s challenging enough, but not scary enough.
Flow state focus
A beautiful thing happens when we are operating in the learning zone and we are learning about what we deeply love.
Deep focus needs deep interest and enough challenge.
The flow state is when you are so lost in the task that you lose track of time. It doesn’t just produce your best work. It’s also an important element of happiness.
Flow state is truly, intrinsically rewarding.
In addition to following a structured plan, including the right amount of challenge, and learning with focused sessions, another crucial element to mastery is improving with feedback. ⬇️
Feedback and tuning in
To go from good enough to best, you want you know exactly what you need to fix. That's where a coach comes in. Getting a third-person perspective, especially from an expert can fill our gaps.
There is a reason people swear by good mentors and coaches. It's easy to fix your shortcomings if you know exactly what those shortcomings are.
What if you can't afford a coach, can we self-coach?
Yes, but we need to overcome biases and excuses that we tend to throw in when things don't go our way.
My pace was slow today because the weather was hot.
I didn't score well on this paper because the questions were tricky.
To self coach, we need to learn to ditch excuses, analyze our performance closes, and find reasons for what went wrong. e.g., What kind of training can help increase the pace? For a student trying to ace her exams, what terms and keywords would fetch her more grades?
Deliberate practice isn't a one-size-fits-all deal.
Maybe you just want to unwind with a few piano tunes — learning sheet music might be enough. You don’t need to sweat over hours of practice to become a concert pianist. Maybe you run just to unwind. Why care about pace and times?
The beauty lies in choosing deliberate practice for the areas where you crave mastery, where you want to push your limits and become the best version of yourself.
It's about having that one thing in your life where you ignite the fire within. We all deserve a healthy dose of challenge, both physically and mentally. So pick something that sparks your passion and chase greatness. 🌟
Mental booster of the week
My friend Onjae, a brain health and microdose coach, created a handy guide – The Top 5 Brain-Boosting Supplements to Get Sh*t Done Guide – to help you reclaim your focus and clear brain fog (within minutes) so you can win the day!
It’s a must if you find yourself feeling:
❌ Scatterbrained, while your productivity spirals into chaos
❌ Overwhelmed by all of the tasks on your to-do list
❌ Mentally tired and sluggish (even with all the caffeine you can gulp down)
❌ Inattentive and lost in a forever daydream
❌ Burnt out and unmotivated… about to throw in the towel
Click the link below to grab the guide and other emails about nootropics, psychedelics, and biohacking from Onjae.
a good guide to perfection