365QOD- Day1247

Not Sleeping In

"Things that are easy to do are also easy not to do"- Jim Rohn

Last night I decided that I wanted to run Monday morning at 5.  Since it has been getting pretty hot very early I thought that 5 a.m. I might get some relief from the heat.  So I set my alarm clock.  Put on my running shorts on.  Put my running shoes, with socks and sweat bandanna in the bathroom.

My alarm went off at 5.  I slid out of the bed and went to the bathroom.  Quickly I got ready and left for my run.

Yes it was miserable.  Yes it was hot!  But I had a smile on my face.  Just making myself to get out of bed was an accomplishment.  The time I ran did not matter so much.  As a matter of fact I ran 3 minutes slower than expected BUT that did not bother me.

To me just getting out of bed and going for a run was a great way to start the day.  I normally do it every Friday and Sunday morning.  This week I will get it done three times.

As the quote stresses, it would have been easy for me to shut the alarm off and continue sleeping.  The bed was pulling me back BUT I resisted its magnetic pull.  Instead I stuck with the choice I had made before I went to sleep.

Today's question is:
"How do you make yourself stick to your own choices?"

365QOD- Day1197

Serial Mastery

"Now master this."- unusual advice

Most of us are lucky if we master one thing in our life.  I mean truly master it to the point that there is only a few others who are at the same level as us.  This is why the title of tis post is intriguing.

Are we headed for a life where we must master more than one thing?

I believe that with the speed of innovation we are.  We must develop systems where we can walk into situations and quickly develop skill and within a year or two develop mastery.

Within a year or two?

Yes!  There is so much change that is occurring around us that we need to become more adaptive.  The hamster wheel has started to move faster and faster.

The nice part of this level of change is that no matter what you pick to master, even if you are wrong, then you will get another chance in two years.  So enjoy the quick learning and mastering!

Today's question is:
"What techniques and tools would you use to truly master anything in two years?"

365QOD- Day1016

Eliminating or Adding Steps

“Toyota is known for eliminating any steps that are intermediary or unimportant”- Tim Ferriss

Many times we tend to make things for complex by adding steps.  Companies are very good at adding hurdles on the path to execution.  They do not tolerate risk and by including extra steps they feel that they have better control of the system.  However, this often creates frustration because it lacks common sense of what needs to be done in order to execute a job.   

The quote illustrates that some of the most efficient companies do the opposite.  They want to eliminate the 

unnecessary work and steps in order to get better quality.  To most American companies the extra steps are needed to guarantee quality. 

I believe that intermediate steps are needed in order to assure people know why a particular step is needed. This is very obvious when one watches a martial artist perform a kata form.  Most forms consist of anywhere from 10+ to 100 individual steps.  Just remembering the steps for some of the complex ones requires months and years of learning.  The level of knowing how to do one without thought takes even more time.  

Eventually, you learn the pattern and you can perform it without mistakes. This is just information that has become knowledge.  It is not mastery.

Mastery requires one to go back and look at the intermediate steps that are missing.  As an example consider that the transition from one position to another requires the turning of the head from current position to the new position without turning the body.  This is awkward for most students.  However, would you ever turn the body into danger before you have to by simply rotating the head to see what is coming at you from that direction? Most students do so because they do not know the intermediate steps.

Today’s question is:

“Do you know the purpose of the intermediate steps of your job?”

365QOD- Day 887

"What is the opposite of the mastery curve called?"-my question to a coworker

Carrie walked in and told me a story about a movie called Perfect Senses.  In the movie people deal with the loss of one sense at a time.

While she was telling me the story I kept visualizing the challenges.  Immediately I saw each loss as a step down.  With each step, the person goes through a brief rough patch, even dips below the step, and eventually rests on the plateau.

This is the reverse of what George Leonard wrote about in his book Mastery. As the person rises in levels they experience a rise above the plateau level with eventually resting on the plateau.  On the path to mastery the plateaus get longer and longer with smaller step changes between levels.

For the opposite idea, I can imagine with each loss, the plateau would also get longer.  Maybe the loss of taste is not as critical as loss of hearing.  Maybe the loss of hearing is not as bad as loss of vision, etc.

So what is the opposite of mastery stair steps? The word I came up with is coping steps.  You are adjusting to losses.

Today's question is:
"Are you coping or mastering?"

365QOD- Day858

"I stand on the shoulders of giants"- giving credit

My first book, The Result, is a true story.  The idea that you always get a result and not to call it failure or success comes from Tony Robbins.  So my book is an application of the idea.

This morning I was reading an article on 99u.com site that discusses the idea of plateaus on the path to mastery.  The author does a good job of describing the types of personalities and their behavior when confronted by a plateau.

Unfortunately the author does not give credit for the idea originator.  If you get a hold of the book Mastery by George Leonard you will discover the the identical types.  The only difference is that George applied them generally while the author applied it to tennis.

The reason I bring this up is not to put down the author.  It is for us to realize and credit a source.  Maybe I did not communicate the giant as well as I should for my book?  I have to go back and re-read a part of my book.

Today's question is:
" Whose shoulder does your idea stand on?"

365QOD-Day608

"Interesting strategy"- Mike's response

I work in two plants and when I went to my second office I re-told Scott's story to Mike.  He is a good golfer who is trying to better his game and achieve greatness. 

We sat there and parsed Scott's strategy and then I asked Mike, "what is the minimal set of clubs one needs to play a game?"  The conclusion was a wedge, #5, and #8 iron.  Once one masters the stroke strength (low, medium, and high) on one particular club then these three clubs would allow a good golfer to play the game effectively.  I argued for a putter.

The club choices provided a decent range once combined with the stroke strength.  The wedge allowed one to get out of hazzards and use the edge for putting.  It was an interesting thought experiment.

Today's question is:
"What is the minimum set of tools you need for job?"

365QOD-Day607

"...So how did you get so great at golf?" - Ray's question

The other day I was having lunch with a bunch of co-workers and vendors.  The subject of golf came up and one of the vendors asked that question of his employee. 

The employee, Scott who is in low 70s golfer, without thinking about it said that he had a property with a lot of land behind it.  Once he decided to learn how to play golf he started by picking out a club and every day for a year hitting 75 golf balls.  This was before he ever played. 

I have not been able to get this out of my mind.  By picking a particular club he forced himself to "master" it without having to master all of the clubs.  He followed up the advice by saying that once you master a single club then other clubs fall into place.

In other words, Scott had focused on the practice, the plateau, that eventually when he started playing golf on courses his learning curve was exponential.
 
Today's question is:
"Have you ever taken a part of your game and focus on it solely until you obtain mastery?" 

365QOD-Day427

"My mind got the best of me today"- my thought this morning

Today is Saturday and I decided to go for a 10 mile run.  I decided to keep things fresh so I chose a slightly different path.  I ran about 4 miles and instead of my normal turn I kept straight. 

In my mind the path forward was about equal to the my normal turn.  But as the time kept ticking I realized that it was most likely closer to 13+ miles. 

With a couple of stops I made it back to my normal turn spot and stopped.  All of a sudden my back started being stiff.  My right knee kept feeling funny.  After a couple of attempts to resume I just gave up.

What was suppose to be a fun distance run turned into a grueling 4 mile walk back to home.  It was frustrating to know that I should resume but my mind decided otherwise.  I don't know if my mind just simply decided I was not ready for 13 or it just didn't feel like it.

As the old saying goes, " A mind is a terrible master".  Today it got the best of me.

Today's question is:
"How do you do something else then what your mind tells you to do?"

365QOD-Day371

"My life isn't focused on results.  My life is really focused on the process of doing all the things I'm doing, from work to relationships to friendships to charitable work.  If I focused on results, it's only about the ultimate results, I'd be a failure in Sudan, I'd be a failure in film, I'd be a failure with my friendships, I'd be a failure in relationships.  I look at it as an ongoing process"-George Clooney Esquire magazine

I believe that one of the mistakes that we often make is that our focus is often only on the results.  I agree with George that the process of how we do things is often the key. 

The process will lead to better results.  Focus solely on the results and you will become frustrated when you slightly miss the mark. But by focusing on the process you will know how to modify it to get closer to the desired result.

This is the theme of my first book... The result.

Today's question is:
"Are you focused on results or on the process?"

365QOD-Day329

“Some people live X years, but most people live 1 year X  times.”-Anonymous

Practice does not make perfect.  

How do I know?  I used to watch little kids practice very hard before a rank test.  They would flare their arms vigorously BUT not with any precision or form.

So what makes perfect? Perfect practice makes perfect.

In order to understand why something works or does not work we must take it apart and examine why we succeeded or failed.  We must take ourselves apart and understand our thinking and beliefs that contributed to the result.

Doing something over and over and expecting better results without examining the reasons is not productive.  We can not improve by doing it more often.  We must do it after we have obtained some wisdom by examining our success and failures.


Today's question is:
"Do you question your successes as well as your failures?"

365QOD-Day297

"All masters started out as disasters"- Harv Eckert

European Journal of social sciences reported that:
"... teens who mentally reheares overcoming adverse competative situations gained the most confidence in their ability to play soccer.  This is called Motivational Specific Mastery (MS-Mastery)"

Visualize yourself actually mastering a challenging situation, not just running through it with good outcome
I think you have to add as many senses to the experience.  You have to think about all of the little steps that it took to get to the mastery. 

Some of us would do those steps by visualizing them.  Others would rehearse them by speaking them out loud.  A few would even have to practice them in order to internalize them.  Each of us has a sequence that is like a magic key that would discover that mastery. 

I watched a student one Saturday morning discover er key.  She had to see me do an example, followed by explaining to another student how to do it, and lastly she had to do a third example.  Once she used that sequence she mastered that concept.

Today's question is:
"Can you visualize yourself actually mastering a challenging situation?"

365QOD-Day275

Joshua Foer's last principle is:


Principle 4 Experts treat what they do like a science.  They collect data, they create theories, and they test them

You have to be somewhat removed from the process.  In order to observe yourself and collect data.  Once you have data, pause and think about the process and the data you are getting.

The pause is worth gold.  Without it it will all seem like noise.  Then you can take the data and formulate a theory of why you are getting what you are getting. 

Lastly, make another attempt and test your new belief.

Today's question is:
"Do you test your theories?"

365QOD-Day274

Joshua Foer principle on becoming an expert

Principle 3 Experts crave and thrive on immediate and constant feedback.

In my last post I discussed my approach for learning how to get a large capital project completed.  I sat down and interviewed three experts and summarized their beliefs and processes into a single process.

After I explained their process back to them.  Then I created my own version.

Next step was critical.  I shared with them my version and asked for opinions.  They offered their thoughts.

Being a new guy I periodically go back to them and ask them if I can improve on anything.  I believe that they appreciate that I am still trying to learn and have been very helpful to me.

Today's question is:
"Do you ask for and give constructive feedback constantly?"

365QOD-Day273

Principle 2 Experts will try to walk in the shoes of someone who's more competant than them
When starting something new it is important to find someone who knows more than you.  It might be a co-worker or a local subject matter expert.  You have to ask for time to drill them on their thinking process and the overall process to get a job done.

What I did on my new job is interview the three individuals that are currently performing my job.  I asked about the overall job flow and their approaches.  I then quickly summarized their work flow back to them.  Lastly, I then merged the three processes into a single process that combined the steps of all three experts.  It became my optimal procedure because it combined the best features.

Today's question is:
"Who is the expert around you?"

365QOD-Day272

"If you are not stretching then you are dying"- Unknown

Decently I read an article on the 99% website about the work by Joshua Foer.

His work deals with determining what makes people an expert.  The article mentions four principles which I will discuss in next four posts.


Principle 1 Experts tend to operate outside their comfort zone and study themselves failing.

To me, working outside of my comfort zone is a daily activity.  My last few jobs placed me in positions for which I was not prepared at all.  I had to enter a job where I was familiar with some aspects but I had to work hard to learn new subjects.

For example, I have a background as an Electrical Engineer(I spent 12 years in the power industry) but in my last job I worked on instrumentation projects.  Instrumentation and power are related BUT yet completely different. 

My boss gave me a choice if I wanted to continue doing power(easy and comfortable choice) or develop my instrumentation side(difficult and time consuming).  I jumped at the opportunity to work outside my comfort zone.  So I fully understand the first part of Principle 1.

The second piece of the principle is very interesting to me.  How does one study themselves failing?  Well, when you do projects, like I have, you fail at times.  You are learning but the information is not complete and you make the best call you can.  Just because you had a failure, you must study and understand the failure AND yourself.  It is you who failed.  I would review my past mistakes and always ask myself.... if I had to do this project over again, what would I do completely differently? Often times the answer was very clear. 

I also think that when attempting something new it is easier to study yourself failing.  The opportunity is there and success is not guaranteed.  You must pull yourself outside of your body and observe yourself attempting this new challenge.  It is strange to be the doer and observer.. Give it a try!  Look for your thinking process, your body position, your thoughts(beliefs of success or failure).

In my new job I am working on large capital projects.  I previously did small capital projects. I am streeeeeaaaaaaaatching!

Today's question is:

"What have you learned by studying yourself failing?"

365QOD-Day184

"We are continuously faced by great opportunities brilliantly disguised as unsolvable problems"- Anonymous

Everything is hard until you have figured it how to do it.  Some people will even say that all it requires is practice.  The old saying is practice makes perfect.

I completely disagree.  Practice does not make perfect.  Perfect practice makes perfect.

In other words just practicing the wrong things perfectly still makes them wrong.  You must make each practice session perfect. 

In a past posts I discussed ideas from the book Mastery by George Leonard.  This is a wonderful book but it lacks information about what it takes to make practice perfect.  Thomas Sterner answers this question in his book.  He details what he did to improve his golf game.  He even describes how he improved as a piano tuner.  He suggests that we must have a specific goal on which we will work on during each practice session.  It should be a small manageable goal.  We should not be focused solely on the ultimate end goal.

A wonderful book!

Today's question is:
"What is your goal for today's practice?"

365QOD-Day97

"The Universe likes speed"-Joe Vitale

Mastery book's fifth key is called The Edge- Push the envelope

Often times we sit around happy with our results. It is good to celebrate success but if one gets too comfortable then they often times fall from that level. 

Early success could be a sign of being able to get the low hanging fruit and not an indication of your greatness.  Pushing the envelope and stretching yourself must be a part of your daily life.

No one is suggesting that you have to be a complete risk taker BUT leaning towards uncomfortable has to be a must.  As humans we like steady state.  We seek a lull in activity and like to know that our efforts are rewarded.  However, we can not get comfortable.

Our growth depends on the stretching beyond our current steady state position.  Remember that the best fruit is not found low to the ground but up high where one has to stretch to reach it.

Often times we are afraid to leap because we think that there is no safety net below to save us.  But  once the leap has taken place we often find ourselves on higher ground and better off.

Today's question is:
"Do you know where the edge is?"

365QOD-Day96

Mastery book part4 is Intentionality.

According to Webster, the definition if intentionality is to be "done by design".  In other words you intent to do something.  You have a goal and you are intending to strive towards it.

I am amazed at the thinking process of many students.  It is their expectation that the answer should appear after one operation.  If it does then they are happy.  But often solving problems requires the manipulation of an equation(s) to get them in the form that is needed to obtain the result.

I believe that it is no different in life.  Very few projects require a one step to complete them.  It would be nice BUT that is not reality.  Often times the path that we chose requires changes along the way.  The initial strategy which is your intent is often a good design but only through being adaptable while retaining the original intended goal will one reach the goal. 

Often times steps that we believe will take X amount take slightly more Y amount. 

Today's question is:
"What is your most important goal intentionality?"

365QOD-Day95

The third key is to Surrender.

It is important to note that one can surrender in two different ways: first way is to truly surrender to an authority, second way is to pretend to have surrendered.

If one is being instructed by a true authority of an instructor then allowing one self to be teachable is very important.  However,  truly surrendering does not mean that you allow yourself to be abused or idolizing the instructor.  It means to allow the instructor to guide you with the belief that they have your best interest at heart unless proven otherwise.

The second type of surrender is not a true surrender.  A person is trying to fool the instructor BUT in reality the only one being fooled is the person themselves.  By being so skeptical, the person puts unnecessary walls and never truly learns everything.  Often times the instructor can sense this deception and does not offer a complete knowledge transfer to take place.

Today's question is:

"Can you allow yourself to truly surrender?"

365QOD-Day94

"Practice makes perfect"- Anonymous

The second part of the mastery formula is dedicated to practice.  I completely disagree with the notion that practice makes perfect.

I remember teaching martial arts classes and just before testing we would encourage the students to spend a portion of the time practicing their form.  It was almost comical that small kids thought swinging their hands wildly while moving their hands and feet very fast was practicing.  Maybe they were practicing the correct form but their practice was poor.

The idea that practice make perfect can also be argued against based on the notion that maybe what you are practicing is actually wrong.  Continuing with the small kids example, they would practice and practice a wrong move inside their form without noticing it.  They were in a sense practicing the wrong thing and getting better at it.

Combing these ideas would wrongly lead one to believe that if one practices the wright things then they would develop mastery. 
Today's question is:
"How do you get better at practicing the right things?"

In a future post I will explore the idea of practice in more detail.