Deliberate practice requires intense focus, structured with purposeful efforts to improve performance or expertise on a specific skill.
This practice is not by repetitive practices; it requires one to push themselves beyond their usual abilities and comfort zone.
You can work on the following to improve your deliberate practices:
1. Identify your weaknesses. What are some of the areas that you like and need to improve? Have you allocated time to work on them previously? How did some of these weaknesses arise? Was it due to habitual practices, or has something affected you? Being able to single them out with solid clarity can help.
2. Have a purpose for your practice session. What was your objective or goal? Did you specify a measurable result or the potential scenario you wanted to achieve? You can be more aware of your results if you have set some benchmarks before the beginning of your session. Write down your objectives and identify the support or resources you need to help you get an organized start. Imagine the results you would like to attain that can be useful in your delivery.
3. Regular practice is critical. How often do you do it? Rethink how often you NEED to do it, set a frequency goal, and work on the development actions that will help you grow and improve.
4. Focus. Deliberate practice needs a good amount of focus. What can you do to improve your focus and attention? Identify the distractors, how you would want to eliminate them, and what you will do. Your focus can determine the quality of your achievement for every practice.
5. Work on improvement. What do you want to be better than the last round? Using your key learnings to create your improvement goals with specific actions plan can help you make better results with every attempt. Every slight improvement is considered reasonable; improving can help your performance rate.
6. Have mentors. Identifying a mentor and working on specific areas that they would be able to help can make a difference. Each mentor will have expertise; you can learn from them to address your weakness. Attaining feedback is also essential for deliberate practice to avoid repetitive mistakes without knowing it yourself.
7. Allow time to rest. The recovery period is important for both the physical and mental states. Your focus can only last that while. You may need adequate rest to have the right mind and body. Test yourself on the optimal period of stress and productivity during your practices; you can better define how much you can do for the next round.
8. Understand that deliberate practice cannot overcome all. Some things can fall beyond our reach and accessibility, no matter how hard we try. We must understand that continuous practicing will improve our potential but does not guarantee a sure win.
Deliberate practice would require us to work intentionally in the most focused way possible. Facing your weakness with an open mind and working on consistent practices and focus is the key to achieving greater heights.
