Defining Success in Practice
A practical approach to improving a skill by determining what success means to you
It probably didn’t surprise many people who know me when I went from practicing a few jump shots to deliberately practicing 5x/week this summer…when a practice catches me, it really catches me. And as is usually the case in the process of pursuing improved performance, I’ve learned so much along the way.
This is one of my favorite takeaways from learning to shoot: we get to set our own standards for success.
Of course, this is true in the grandest senses — success in your career, your family time, your life…but today I want to talk about it in a much smaller sense. How do we define success when we’re practicing a skill? And dare I say, how might we do it better? :D
Did the shot go in?
Many skills come with a built-in definition of success. If the ball goes in the hoop, it was a successful shot. If not it, wasn’t. And this might be true in a competition, but it doesn’t have to dictate how we PRACTICE. When we start to expand our possible definitions of success, we open ourselves up to more accessible learning. Let’s look at some very concrete examples:
Elevating the Standard
When shooting a basketball, what if we held ourselves to a higher standard by only counting the shot if it’s a “swish,” in which the ball doesn’t touch anything but the net? An archer could only count a bull’s eye, a juggler only a run with no bobbles, a handbalancer an attempt with arms totally straight, a dancer a pirouette with no loss of balance…you get the idea.
Steph Curry (arguably the best basketball shooter of all-time) will get points in a game no matter how the ball goes in. A lucky bounce gets just as many points as a swish. But that doesn’t mean he can’t hold himself to a higher standard in practice.
Bring the Standard to You
What about those of us who aren’t Steph Curry? If I want o teach my niece to shoot a basketball, should I tell her it doesn’t count unless it’s a perfect swish?
NO.
…I just want to be really clear on that, haha. She would probably fall short of this unrealistic standard on her first few attempts, and then want to go try something less annoying. So what if we actually relax the standard a bit? Maybe first I’ll see if she can get the ball out of her hands, then if she can hit any part of the hoop, then we can start thinking about whether the ball is going in — let alone how.
Application
Again, it’s tempting to accept the standards of success that seem…standard. But why not change the rules of the game to suit us better? After all, they were just made up by someone, right?
What skill are you working on? Think about how you typically define success, and then see if you can find a more relaxed standard and a more strict standard. How do these new standards influence your practice? Do you learn differently?
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