The Little Book of Talent

So, we need to practice if we want to develop our myelin to develop our skill. But not just any practice will do. We need to DELIBERATELY practice.

We need to find our Sweet Spot right in between our comfort zone and our survival zone—that place where we’re just outside the edge of our ability that demands intense focus and leads to plenty of mistakes that we struggle to optimize.

Comfort Zone = Too easy.

Sweet Spot = Properly challenging.

Survival Zone = Too challenging.

Tal Ben-Shahar has a similar way of describing this in the context of setting goals. He tells us we want to leave our comfort zones and head into our stretch zones but we don’t want to go so far that we wind up in our panic zones.

I like that. I also like to imagine a rubber band.

Imagine stretching a rubber band (or, better yet, go get one and actually do this!) between the pointer fingers of each of your hands. If you just let it sit there without stretching it at all, there’s no tension. It’s just kinda limp. Not so good. That’s our comfort zone.

Now, stretch it nice and taught so there’s a dynamic tension you can feel. That’s good. That’s your stretch zone.

Now, imagine (I don’t recommend actually doing this unless you’re prepared to have the band break in your face!) stretching the rubber band so far that it SNAPS. That, is not so good. That’s our snap zone. Or, as Dan describes it, our survival zone. Or, as Tal describes it, our panic zone.

We want to play just on the edge of our abilities as we practice cultivating our skills.

Focus on YOU: Where are you spending most of your time?

Languishing in your comfort zone? Stretching in your sweet spot? Or snapping in your panic/survival zone?

And, most importantly: What’s one thing you could do to optimize that?

Two things here.

First: Daily practice snacks are MUCH better than weekly feasts. And this applies to *everything*—whether it’s meditation, exercise or deliberately cultivating a particular skill.

Consistency over intensity is one of my favorite mantras.

In this case, consistent intensity—even if it’s just for 5 minutes per day!

That’s part 1. Part 2 is one of my favorite Ideas.

We need to recognize that getting good at practicing consistently is a SKILL IN AND OF ITSELF!

I agree with Dan that it is perhaps THE most important skill of all. As I reflected on it, I realized that I’ve unconsciously made this my #1 skill to develop and it’s now officially the #1 skill I will be developing *consciously.*

This is at the heart of creating masterpiece days. We need to structure our lives such that we can be in the best position to CONSISTENTLY show up and do our best work.

We need to know when our energy is best and do the most challenging work in a pre-selected time block at.that.time. (Dan tells us for most hotbeds, that’s in the morning when everyone is fresh.)

We need to follow Jim Loehr’s advice and TRAIN RECOVERY with good night’s of sleep and naps. (Dan tells us that napping is a universal practice of peak performers—more on that in a moment.)

We need to practice getting good at practicing/optimizing.

It’s one of, if not THE most important skill.

How are you doing with that?

P.S. Remember to practice every day you eat. :)

Sara Mednick is one of the world’s leading researchers on the scientific benefits of napping. She wrote a whole book on it called Take a Nap! Change Your Life (see Notes) where she tells us:

“Let’s look at the rest of the animal kingdom. Do any other species try to get all their sleep in one long stretch? No. They’re all multiphasic, meaning that they have many phases of sleep. Homo sapiens (our modern industrialized variety, anyway) stand alone in attempting to satisfy the need for sleep in one phase. And even that distinction is a relatively recent development. For most of our history, a rest during the day was considered as necessary a component of human existence as sleeping at night. As A. Roger Ekirch, one of the few historians to study sleep, put it, ‘Napping is a tool as old as time itself.’”

Plus: “Scientists no longer argue about whether napping is natural or unnatural, helpful or unhelpful. These are givens.”

Plus: “Our results back up what historians, anthropologists, artists and numerous brilliant leaders and thinkers have been telling their contemporaries throughout the ages. In a perfect world, all humans, including you, would nap.”

And… In his great book The Power of Rest (see Notes) Matthew Edlund tells us: “Research at Harvard has shown that short periods of daytime sleep—even as short as a six-minute nap— can improve memory.”

(Six minutes!!)

Naps. They do a body good.

(Note to self: Remember to take naps more often! :)

Positive framing vs. negative framing.

It’s important to state what you want to happen in POSITIVE terms.

Are you doing that?

Remember: Quit framing things negatively!

Ahem. Um.

I mean: Frame things positively! :)

P.S. This reminds me of what psychologists call “approach” vs. “avoidance” behavior.

The healthiest among us choose approach goals—framing their desires in the positive things they want to move toward rather than the negative things they want to avoid.

As per Dan Siegel (see Notes on Mindsight): “People with mindfulness training have a shift in their brains toward an “approach state” that allows them to move toward rather than away from challenging situations. This is the brain signature of resilience.”

To the approach!

Want to prime your subconscious mind before you sleep?

A TON of peak performance coaches recommend watching an idealized performance in your head. A mental movie of pure awesome.

NOTE: As I’ve said many times, remember that we’re visualizing our ideal PERFORMANCE (aka what we’re going to do) *not* our ideal OUTCOMES (aka the benefits of doing something really well for a long time).

Comedians imagine a great performance, perfect timing, audience laughing, etc. NOT the big check per se.

Athletes imagine the perfect moves, scoring with grace, etc. NOT the endorsement check.

I like to imagine a masterpiece day—getting up with energy and enthusiasm, moving thru my morning rituals with a smile then knocking out my AM1 time block (either reading or creating a Note), spending time with the fam then rolling thru my AM2 time block (which is my most challenging and important; these days MWF I do the MP3 + PNTV + Micro Classes for a Note while Tue/Thu I do interviews).

My ideal PERFORMANCE.

How about you? What’s your ideal performance look like?

P.S. When we do imagine our product goals, let’s remember to open up a can of WOOP on ‘em! (Check out the Micro Class on that.)

As per our Note on Gabriele Oettingen’s brilliant book Rethinking Positive Thinking, we imagine our Wish + Outcome + Obstacle + Plan: “On a blank sheet of paper, name the wish in three to six words. Identify the best outcome (also in three to six words) and write it down. Now let your thoughts lead your pen, taking as much paper as you need. Then name your obstacle and write it down. Imagine the obstacle, again letting your thoughts wander and lead your writing. To create a plan, first write down one specific action you can take to overcome the obstacle. Write down the time and place where you believe the obstacle will arise. Then write down the if-then plan: ‘If obstacle x occurs (when and where), then I will perform behavior y.’ Repeat it once to yourself out loud.”

The blue collar mind set.

I. LOVE. THAT.

So much so that I stole Emerson’s little LEGO construction guy’s red lunch pail. It now sits on the window sill in my office. Right in front of my face. I’m looking at it now as I type.

That lunchpail is *identical* to the lunch pail that Steve Pressfield put on the cover of his classic book Turning Pro (see Notes).

It’s the *perfect* representation of showing up and doing the work. Day in and day out. Whether we feel like it or not. Blue-collar style. Remember: Inspiration is for amateurs.

Love that.

As much as we’d like results right.this.moment (ideally YESTERDAY!), that’s not how it works.

We need to think like a gardener. With patience. Without judgment. Looking at results over horticultural time, not clock time.

And we need to act like a carpenter. Precisely. Steadily. Strategically. Seeing how each piece connects to the larger whole.

That’s a winning formula for giving ourselves the space to cultivate our talent (/myelin) so we can optimize, flourish, and actualize!