What I'm Reading - May

I had meant to share regularly the books I have been reading, but in my race to get through the reading, I forgot to write about it!

The past month or so I have been catching up with reading books that I promised to review, and I thought I would share the books I read and my thoughts on them, briefly.

No Limits - John Maxwell



I love author John Maxwell's books, and this one was no exception. I enjoyed this one even more because it was aimed more at all individuals rather than just those looking to get ahead in the business world.

I think it would make an amazing graduation gift for anyone stepping into the world, giving them essentially a tool kit to develop "success skills". Although many of the skills and topics touched on in the book have been written about elsewhere, the author bestows his unique perspective and draws on decades of experience. Anyone who reads the book will be inspired, not just to imagine more productivity and success, but will have concrete tools and action points to "blow the cap off their capacity". 

On Fire - John O'Leary 

The book to me felt like a combination of a memoir and a motivational self-help book, and initially that put me off a little and I took a while to get into the book. That changed a couple of chapters in, and I raced through the remainder of the book. I even found myself quoting from the book in conversations, and really wanted everyone I met to stop what they were doing to read the book.

The book inspired me and made me look again at the parts of my life on autopilot, made me rethink how I was approaching many aspects and just generally made me feel inspired to see things in a new way. Unlike many other self-help books, this doesn’t give you a list of strategies and tactics; instead the author challenges you to think differently. To see the circumstances of your life differently. As an avid reader of psychology and self-help books, instead of rehashed and trite messages, I genuinely found many lessons in the book, that were new to me or presented in a way that made me see something in my life profoundly differently. I had many "a-ha" moments while reading this book.

The author's story is an inspirational one; but it wasn't just the story of how he overcame incredible odds that inspired me, it was that he shared lessons from his experiences that the reader can begin to apply to their life. I recommend this book to parents, teachers and anyone looking to inspire themselves and others to living more fully, be more engaged with life and live "on fire".

The Courage of a Samurai - Lori Tsugawa Whaley

This book wasn’t at all what I expected - but in a good way. Although at times it seemed somewhat like reading a sermon, the simplicity of the moral code presented in the book is in especially sharp contrast with the current political climate. Presented through the stories of distinguished Japanese-Americans, the author describes a simple code of conduct derived from the samurai or warrior culture of Japan.

As a student of Japanese law and history myself, I found a lot of the stories in the book fascinating, giving me a completely new perspective into the history of the second world war and the cultural nuances of Japanese society. The principles described in the book may be familiar, but they are made new and interesting through the lens of the stories that accompany each principle and illustrate it. I found myself fascinated and read through the book in a few days.

The Courage of a Samurai reminds us that timeless principles like loyalty, honor and integrity can be guiding lights, regardless of who we are and where we come from, and especially when times are hard and we are tempted to give in to complaint and bitterness and complacency, we can live a completely different life by simply making different choices.

Option B - Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant

I really enjoyed both Lean In and Originals, the authors' previous books, and I knew that I would be interested in their next book as well. 

This book is unique in that it combines the personal story of Sheryl Sandberg losing her husband and how she and her family coped with this loss, along with research on how to develop resilience and strength in the face of grief and trauma and come out on the other side. I won't state clichés about how adversity makes you stronger, and neither does the book, but the personal anecdotes paired with research from studies on developing resilience helps you have hope, for yourself or for others in your life who are suffering.

In some ways it is helpful to see that even those who live a very different life from us are affected in the same ways by adversity. The advice and perspective in the book is extremely helpful no matter what you are struggling with, and I found myself wishing this book had been available sooner.  The only drawback - the abrupt shifts from the personal story to research data was a little jarring at times, but overall, a good read.

Self-Publishing and Libraries - Denise Weldon-Siviy

Most indie authors I know would love to have their books available in libraries, and when I was offered the chance to read an early copy of a book that discusses this topic, I jumped at it.

This book is very well-researched and comprehensive. If you are an indie or self-published author, you will already know some of the information on self-publishing given in the book, but the thorough primer would be invaluable to anyone who isn't familiar with the subject and the various options available.

I found the chapters that discussed the perspective of libraries and what it takes for books to get catalogued really eye-opening, because as either an author or a library user, you don't get to see the other side, and understand the steps that go into choosing a book to include and the constraints behind those decisions.

The book includes a list of recommendations for both indie authors and librarians, and I found the list particularly helpful, as were the resources included. Overall, if you are an author wanting to get your books into libraries, or librarians wishing to include more self-published books in your collection and wondering how to go about it, this book is highly recommended!

New Book Published on Study Skills

Update: Anyone Can Get An A+ Companion Workbook just hit #1 on a Hot New Releases list! Check it out here.

I wrote the study skills book in 2015 to not only put down all my thoughts on studying, but to share with students who are struggling with school that there is another way, that they can actually do well in school and improve their grades simply by changing how they study. 

However, I realized that there was a lot of new information to assimilate, because in essence I was suggesting that students completely change how they were approaching their studies. It was entirely possible that someone would read the book, think it had a lot of good points, and then go right back to their old study habits. 

So I created a workbook - for students to work through each lesson and tip, step-by-step customizing the advice to suit their own needs. The workbook helps you to be clear about your study goals, pinpoint exactly what you want to achieve, and then go through the book, doing exercises that help you understand how to apply the advice in the book. Instead of simply reading the text, you get a chance to understand it, engage with it and begin to implement the knowledge right away.

The workbook is available as an ebook version, with a paperback version to follow soon: books2read.com/studyworkbook 

This is a companion workbook, so you can definitely benefit from it even if you have read Anyone Can Get An A+. I did however, design the book to be self-contained, so even if you haven't read that one, you will be able to gain from going through the book and completing the exercises. I also think it will be useful for parents and teachers as well as adults returning to education after a gap, either part-time or full-time, and those preparing for standardized tests. 

Get a copy for yourself or the student in your life today!

The Mindset You Need To Be Successful

Although written in almost too casual a style, and filled with what appear to be dinner-party anecdotes, the book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Dr. Carol Dweck is a must-read for parents, teachers, coaches and managers. And everyone else. If you are interested in improving in any sphere of endeavor at all, read this book. The central premise, that your mindset determines your success in any field, and that moreover, by changing your mindset you can change how much you learn and how well you do, is compelling and rigorously backed up by scientific research, the author's own and that of others. The book is also practical, and outlines ways to induce positive changes in those you wish to influence, either children or employees. Reading this book I kept putting it down, because I wanted to go ahead and start implementing the suggestions right away.

3 takeaways from the book:

1.  Talent and effort are synonyms – It is a myth that talent is something that is handed to you as a gift. Most people develop talent through effort, and thus success can be meritorious. Although this concept isn’t new and one I encountered before, but this book really brought the message home. There is no field of endeavor in which you can't improve if you are willing to change your mindset.

2. Failure has a new meaning – In Dweck's world of growth mindset, you're failing when you're not trying hard enough, when you're stuck in what's easy and not reaching high enough. When you're not afraid to make a mistake, then you make the mistakes, and use them to get better. 

3.  Being a natural is overrated – We tend to overvalue those people who can do something easily and effortlessly, and assume that anyone who can't do something naturally, even if it is ourselves, cannot do that thing at all. There are probably a few people who have natural talents or gifts for certain activities, which were further honed by them being exposed to these activities from an early age. Not being already good at something isn’t really a guarantee that someone will never gain those skills, but usually that’s how we think and act. "Just because some people can do something with little or no training, it doesn't mean that others can't do it (and sometimes do it even better) with training".

I would recommend that you not only read this book once, you keep coming back to it. I read it because I thought I could use it as part of the research for my latest book, but it turned out to be useful in changing how I thought about almost every aspect of my life. For a few weeks, every conversation with my mom included, "Have you read 'Mindset' yet?" I am trying to live the principles of the book, to approach every area that I'm struggling in with the attitude that I can learn and improve, instead of just believing that I'm just not good enough and giving up. Since this is kind of the theme of my newest book, I need to demonstrate it myself.

Why We Need To Teach

I read this comment somewhere recently, without realizing that quite soon I would be writing it myself: "We teach what we most need to learn".

The truth of this hit home to me today while working on my current book. I am writing a book about study skills and how to approach studying, aimed at those who are struggling at school or just don't like to study. Since my current life doesn't resemble that in any way, one would think I wouldn't have anything to learn on this topic. That turns out not to be the case however.

A few days ago when I was working on the chapter on procrastination, I realized that ironically I was procrastinating on working on it, and on a few other things I was supposed to be doing, and that the advice I was writing about could benefit me. I shrugged it off as a funny coincidence. The same thing happened days later when working on the chapter on managing distractions. I again dismissed it, because after all, we all have way too many distractions nowadays, so it was hardly noteworthy.

The particular section that I was editing this morning was different. I had already been distracted today, because my work isn't going well, I'm frustrated about how slow it feels that I am moving while everyone else around me is hurtling forward and achieving obvious success. Then a few lines that I had written a while ago popped out at me - words about not worrying what others were doing, and to simply focus on your own work, and trust that you would get where you needed to. They were meant for students struggling at schoolwork, but they seemed to be advice that was tailor-made for how I was feeling today.

And that's where I realized - nothing in life is really a coincidence. I kept asking myself why I was compelled to write a book about study skills when I was no longer a student, hadn't been a student for a long time, and when I had a whole queue of books that would 'make more sense' for me to write. Now I am beginning to understand. While writing this book I have learnt a lot - about tackling projects, about the mistakes I made in my youth (feels so long ago), about facing up to something you're struggling to get a handle on. I truly did need to teach myself a lot in order to find something to teach others about as well. Now I'm looking forward to what my next book will teach me, and the lessons I can in turn pass on.

My current book Anyone Can Get As: How To Beat Procrastination, Reduce Stress and Improve Your Grades is available on Amazon.

Learn By Practicing

One of the mistakes students repeatedly make when studying for an exam is to simply read over the textbook or their notes over and over, and think that they know the material and are sufficiently prepared for their test. A few books I have been reading lately discuss this issue in more detail, particularly an excellent book on study tips and learning quantitative skills - A Mind For Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra. The better strategy for studying is instead to test your learning - try to solve problems on your own or answer sample test questions. This is harder, but it cements your understanding better.

In the same vein, I realize that even as adults we seem to keep making this same mistake. We read dozens of self-help books, that sound great and make big promises about how the material will change our life. Even after reading and re-reading the book however, we are no closer to solving our problems, or changing our life (or finances or weight or relationships, whatever the purview of the book). I am myself definitely guilty of this quite often, and sometimes conclude that such books can't possibly help me to change myself.

But maybe the problem lies in this same fallacy that reading equals learning - "the illusion of fluency" is how some academics term it. Learning anything, whether its calculus, or assertiveness, requires re-tooling your brain in a sense. You may have pre-conceived notions, or previous habits that need to changed - maybe the habit of looking at a maths textbook and deciding that you just aren't smart enough to tackle it, or reverting to passiveness when faced with a situation where you would like to be more assertive, but don't know how. It takes effort to get through one calculus problem at a time, getting the hang of first the easy techniques and tackling harder problems, till you change how you approach math.

It is the same principle I think with learning new things as an adult that we don't traditionally think of as "learning" - new skills in the workplace, better inter-personal skills, even something as simple as managing one's time better or overcoming procrastination - we don't usually associate any of this in the same category as learning the history of the civil war or calculus - but essentially for the brain - its the same thing. We need to practice the new skill, fail at it or not do as well as we had hoped, take a step back and evaluate where we went wrong, and attempt it again. Maybe every time we read a book that promises to change some aspect of our life, we need to remember that simply reading the book will not help us - soon we will have forgotten most of it - we need to set aside time to implement the information - however imperfectly - and that will be far more effective than deluding ourselves that just because we understand what to do, we now will be able to do it (the skill we are hoping to learn). Just like reading the recipe for making apple pie doesn't get me any closer to baking
one, reading how to be an effective time-manager (or leader or public speaker or whatever), doesn't get me closer to actually getting more done unless I start to put in practice what I read.

Who's Afraid of Math?

I was auditing this course on Coursera (Learning How to Learn), which gives strategies on how to learn more effectively. I was intrigued and was watching the videos. Interestingly, some of the insights apply not just to learning, but also to creating (that's for another post).

One of the videos led me to have an a-ha moment. The lecturer, Dr. Barbara Oakley, was talking about her story of learning languages and being in the army, and how relatively late in her life, she turned to math and computer science and qualified as an engineer, despite having a phobia of math in high school. She talked in detail how she overcame her fear, and got better at the subject. The video explained that math and other technical subjects require practice, to spend time working on problems over an extended period of time, while the concepts slowly become embedded in our long-term memory. At this point, using those concepts in tests or other applications will be easy.

This was astonishing to me, as somehow her story sparked me in the thought that maybe it wasn't that I was bad at math per se, its just that I had applied the wrong technique or given up too easily.

In elementary school, when my mum taught me math through everyday objects, I aced every single test. After encountering a few terrible teachers, I started to dislike the subject, and in high school, really struggled with it. I had a tutor all through high school, and still didn't really do too well. In fact, in 10th grade I came first in school in the board exams, and topped the class in every subject other than Math. By this time it was official, I was hated math, and was afraid of it. I was one of the editors for the school magazine, and used my privileges to cut math class as often as I could, ostensibly to "cover" school sports events for the magazine, but basically to hide from logs and differential equations.

So I didn't really have the best track record with learning math. When I was listening to Dr. Oakley talking about her struggles, I could relate. But then she revealed that she was not only an engineer, she had a PhD in engineering. At that moment, it was as if a switch flipped in my head, and I thought, maybe I can overcome my fear of math too.

A few days later I went to the local library and got a few math textbooks and brought them home. This was so alien, I couldn't help feeling very strange. But I was determined to see if I could change how I approached studying math. The videos I watched described how becoming familiar with each concept could help with subsequent ones, and it was simply a matter of practicing enough to embed the ideas in our brain.

I started with the first chapter - determined to approach using the skills I had learnt from this course, and the other material on learning that I have read recently. Something that I didn't know in high school or college, but learnt recently, that passively reading or copying answers from the text book doesn't lead to effective learning, but testing yourself does. In this context, I decided that as far as possible, I would try to attempt every question, even the sample ones, myself, only turning to the book when stuck.

This turned out to be a really good strategy - as I found myself remembering some things, and stuck in others. The book I was working on focused exclusively on word problems, something I had a lot of difficulty with in school. I am talking the questions on trains meeting after 2 hours, or pipes filling a tank. These were the questions that I dreaded in school (not to mention probably bombed on my GRE Math test).

Going through the book, which had tons of examples and very simple approaches to each type of problem, I started to feel a sense of accomplishment. I usually only got one or two questions wrong in each quiz, and I could feel myself getting more and more familiar with the material. I woke up each morning, stealing time from writing, to sit with my math textbook. This became my guilty pleasure, and I was loving(!) every minute. My rule was, that as soon as I got tired, I could stop. Most days I worked on problems for about 45 minutes, although some days it was less. I was racing through the book, some chapters ridiculously easy. I was even tempted to quit, since I didn't feel like the problems were really challenging me, but I was determined to get through the entire book.

Now I am on chapter 10 of 12. I stumbled a bit on the problems about trains and pipes, but I got through that chapter. I am unbelievably ecstatic that I could learn how to do something almost effortlessly, that in high school would be unthinkable. I used to routinely go to my dad for help on those train questions, and although he could solve them, they were still slightly difficult for him. With the help of this book, I now found them effortless.

The lesson I learnt from this experiment (still ongoing), is bigger than learning how to do high school algebra. What I learnt is that it is easy to give up on something difficult and think, its not for me. I knew I was smart, and yet I secretly believed I was smart in a certain kind of way, i.e. the non-math way. I believed that I wasn't going to ever have a head for numbers, even though I did well with economics classes at graduate school, and had even used calculus for one of my classes. I learnt just enough to get through the class, but didn't go beyond.

Now I am approaching it very differently. Instead of just mindlessly going through the textbook, trying to copy the problems, I made sure to test myself on each question, trying to do it myself, and relishing the feeling of learning something very new. I also realized that practicing the same type of problem over and over really helped to cement the knowledge.

I intend to use this method beyond quadratic equations. I sometimes have a tendency to believe that certain forms of writing are beyond me, and that it may be too late to learn. There are many other areas of my life where I simply decided I didn't have what it takes. These last few weeks of studying math has changed these beliefs, replacing them with confidence - I know that if I practice hard enough, and are willing to consistently put in the work, I can learn anything I want to.

What new skill or subject would you like to learn if you knew you absolutely couldn't fail?

Book Review: So Good They Can't Ignore You

This week's book review is of a book that I read more than a year ago, and came across recently, and decided to read again. The book: Cal Newport's career-advice book "So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love".

Rating: 4.5 stars

General Comments: The second time around I am appreciating the message of this book a lot more than I did previously. I would probably have given it 3.5 stars then. I think partly that is because the message of the book is quite different, and presented differently, and takes getting used to. In some ways, my own views on career and success have changed a lot in the intervening period, and perhaps as a result, I am more in agreement with the general arguments of the book.

The central premise of the book - "follow your passion" is bad advice, and instead of asking yourself what your passion is, you are better off focusing on becoming "so good they can't ignore you".

3 Insights from the Book:

1. Focus on honing your skills at work - become what Newport calls a "career craftsman", systematically honing your skills at the aspects of your field that are most important. The better you are at work, the more you acquire "career capital", which is a lot like other kinds of capital, and can be exchanged for creating a job that you actually love.

2. Craft comes before autonomy - most of us crave more autonomy in our work, as discussions on remote working and flexible time illustrate. However, Newport argues that more autonomy isn't possible without having a store of "career capital" to exchange for it.

3. Find a mission after you gain mad skills - those of us looking for a mission believe that you need to find the mission first, and then find a way to make it happen. Newport flips that order - and states that by first becoming really good and therefore knowing the bounds of your field, you can find interesting avenues to explore, which will be easier now that you also have the skills.

Although I did find some holes in his argument, or at least many possible exceptions, I do think in general there is merit in prioritising becoming good in what you are already doing rather than looking for something elusive that you could be doing instead. I definitely wish there was a book like this when I graduated.

Recommend For: Anyone wishing to gain another perspective on how to create a career that is "remarkable", especially for those starting out, or in their first jobs.

Book Review: Your Brain At Work

This week's book review is on a book I just finished reading - Your Brain At Work by David Rock. The subtitle sums up what the book is about: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long.

Rating: 5 stars

General Comments: The book summarizes neuroscience research to explain why we sometimes find ourselves frustrated at not being able to do what we need to, and how to use the insights from this research to become more creative and productive at work. Since this blog is about just that, I thought it was a perfect book to review.

The book is really easy to read, and quite smartly, presented as scenes in a play. The problems of a married couple, Emily and Paul, are presented, as they go through daily challenges to solve problems and give their peak performance both at work and at home. Each chapter presents a specific challenge during the day, strategies for solving that challenge, and an example of how they could have done it differently. The examples really bring home the lessons, and caused me to have several "a-ha" moments while I was reading.

3 Insights From The Book:

1. Limited amount of processing power - our brain can only hold a few concepts or ideas at a time. Certain activities such as planning, deciding, choosing between options - these all require large amounts of cognitive processing power, and the more things we force our brain to consider, the worse job it will do of it. The way I understood this was, the brain is a bit like my computer (which is a bit old), and if too many programs are open at once, it starts to hang. After shutting all but the ones I am actively working on, it starts to work properly again.

The best way to work is therefore to a) save the brain power for important tasks, and not waste CPU space by trying to remember too many items - just write things down; and b) since we can only focus on a few concepts at a time (max 3-4), it's best to simplify complex issues down, or work with only a few issues at a time.

Thus, the optimum way to work is to write down what you need to accomplish, write down your main few goals / points of focus at any point (for yourself, or for a group of people), and then use your brain's processing power to focus on those few high-level items.

2. Embedded routines are easier to perform - the brain creates pathways for tasks or routines that have been done before, which is why even after doing a task 2-3 times it starts to become easier. And why the first time you do something, you have to really focus and concentrate. Given that we want to save our processing power as much as possible for the really important tasks, it pays in efficiency, to make as many aspects of your job an embedded task (i.e. it becomes part of your long-term memory and almost automatic) as possible. This will help you focus your brain's power on those aspects that are more challenging.

The flip side to this point is that we automatically do the same things over and over, and making a chance requires consciously doing something different each time. For instance, if your natural instinct at 4pm is to eat a doughnut, and you are tired, it will require a lot of energy (which you don't have available when tired), to resist eating that doughnut and eat an apple instead. Unless of course you make eating an apple a new embedded routine - which is when it will become your new automatic response. This means making change is just something that is better done one at a time, and with patience.

3. Build awareness of your own mind - it isn't easy to observe ourselves falling back on unconscious patterns or ways of thinking or behaving that may not be serving us well. However, the research indicates that the more we practice observing our thinking, the better we get at it, and the more control we have over our own mind and its processes. We can become more efficient at work, more in control of our emotions, and even create better relationships, at work and at home. This is isn't easy, but with practice it can become much easier.

For instance, I caught myself getting angry at my project today, and realized that the biggest problem was that I wasn't making as fast progress as I would like - partly because its a difficult and fact-laden project, and partly because I was being a perfectionist. I may not have been able to change the outcome yet, but just recognizing this thought process helped me to realize I had choices in how I dealt with this, rather than feel helpless and frustrated which is how I initially felt.

It was hard to pick just 3 insights - because each chapter is full of revelations about how we think and how our brains work. One major takeaway for me from this book was that a lot of my limitations that were frustrating me before, I could start to see they were merely biological limitations, and just acknowledging that has made me brainstorm other, more productive ways to approach my work. Some of those approaches I have already blogged about in the past, and reading this book helped me understand scientifically why those strategies are effective.

  

Recommend For: Anyone who wants to be more productive or efficient at work, who wants to find ways to manage their teams better, who wants to improve their relationships or who simply wants to understand themselves and their minds better.

Dunce to B+ - Insights from “So Good They Can’t Ignore You”

I recently read Cal Newport’s latest offering, “So Good They Can’t Ignore You”, and had so many thoughts, that I had to try to sort them out on paper. The book is definitely worth reading, even for those who are relatively secure in their career path and are confident they have it all mapped out.

I had a few insights, and will try to put them down in a few posts.

Cal writes about deliberate practice, a method by which you basically improve your skill in a given endeavour. I’ve read two books on the topic, and am already very familiar with the idea. Cal underscores the point that deliberate practise is meant to be uncomfortable, that it is important to go through that process to increase skill. And I thought to myself, this means that if I find something uncomfortable, that’s simply because I haven’t developed the skill yet. And when I do, it will no longer be uncomfortable.

So the point I'm making here is very different from the point made by Cal Newport. He states (or rather the research literature has discovered) that in order to improve a skill we have to go out of our comfort zone, stretch ourselves. I’ve read this before, and this is why improving a skill isn’t easy. However, the corollary to this of course is that if you’re doing something, and its difficult or uncomfortable, that means you are stretching your abilities and becoming better at whatever you are doing. This may sound obvious, but in some contexts it may not be so.

We don’t need to be world-class at all skills. In some situations you may need to simply learn how to do if efficiently and effectively, and then it’s important that the skill becomes automatic, that you don’t need to think too much about it. The classic example of this is driving. Learning to drive is initially difficult, but most people get to a point where they can carry on conversations or plan the dinner menu in their head whilst driving (not that I think being distracted being the wheel is advisable).

For me, this insight, that the discomfort in applying a skill is only temporary till I have gotten the hang of it, or mastered it as such, means I am much more likely to hang on in a new skill till I’ve gotten to this point of basic mastery. A prime example recently has been cooking. I know a lot of people love to cook, and I used to be among those when I cooked occasionally, with a lot of help, and only made special dishes. Cooking was fun then, but also an elaborate affair taking many hours, and necessitating lots of clean-up after the mess I made in the kitchen. Recently however, I have had to take over the everyday cooking for my family, with the added requirement of making healthy, low-fat dishes for a new eating program I had started. And initially it was too hard. I could easily cook everyday dishes like pasta, but that wasn’t on the eating plan. Instead I had to make soups, salads, stir-frys, meat dishes with less oil and less processed sauces. And these all had to taste good, because I am an incredibly fussy eater, and far more inclined to eat toast than salad.

Long story short, it was hard; I tried many things, but not only were most of my dishes just ok, they took ages to prepare, and I was feeling very discouraged. When I read this book I realised that maybe this meant I was still developing my skill, and just had to keep at it a little while longer. And although I'm not really a pro yet, I have recently found a few simple and delicious dishes to add to my repertoire that don’t really take as long as before. These were ones I came up with, or variations to recipes I found, that I could only make as my skill developed.

So what’s the point of this story? I have no intention of competing for Masterchef any time soon, when I think about developing skill, cooking doesn’t even make it to the top 5 list. But my goal is to make quick, healthy, tasty dishes. So I had to develop my skills to a certain point. And that’s where the concept of deliberate practise came in – simply by hanging in there, trying new things, riding out the wave of discomfort, I got to a point where I am a good enough cook to achieve my goal. I am still trying to improve my efficiency, to the point where cooking seems to me really easy. Notice how Cal’s goal is to make things harder, to stretch to improve a skill you already have, to hone it further. Yet my goal is to make things easier, to hone a skill I don’t have yet to a point where I don’t have to think about it, it doesn’t stress me out.

If you’re reading this, how can this insight help you? Think of something you need to learn to do, or something you are already doing, or have maybe given up – because its too difficult, it takes too much time and you decided this isn’t something I'm good at. It maybe cooking like me, or learning to make presentations at work, or sorting through your paperwork. If it feels difficult, keep at it, keep trying different strategies till it feels easier. It will feel easier. At which point you can add this skill to your list of things you do automatically, and move on.

What new skill / habit can you make easier for yourself?