The Power of Practice
A few weeks ago, I attended a communications training session that covered familiar material. I’m not going to lie, I was tempted to minimize my Zoom screen, open my email and clear through a bunch of tasks. But I resisted, and boy am I glad that I did.
Besides learning a few new things, the training taught me a crucial lesson: knowing is different from practicing.
In a world that values information, it’s easy to default to conventional ideas of knowledge, like citing authors and books, explaining theoretical frameworks, knowing facts and figures.
Don’t get me wrong, knowing information is important. Understanding trends, key statistics, and the history and context of the field you’re working in is necessary for success. But, as I sat in this training, it hit me that, especially in areas like communication, knowing is a great start, but it’s not enough.
Instead, consistent practice is key.
This is where creatives and crafts people have an upper hand. Both embrace the power of consistent practice as critical to building knowledge and understanding. Let’s take writers for instance. Knowing grammar isn ‘t enough to make someone a good writer. They must write, often poorly at first, and persist. Even successful writers continue practicing and honing their craft as it’s an ever evolving process.
In essence, when knowledge becomes a practice rather than an outcome, our focus shifts. It’s no longer about getting to a finish line, because there isn’t one. Instead, we must learn to concentrate on the process because when knowledge is a practice mastery is infinite.
So the next time your tasked with learning something new, ask yourself whether you’re most in need of information or practice? What would the ideal combination of information and practice be?
And perhaps more generally, are there things you “know” that would benefit from more practice? What would change for you if you started to focus on the process of practicing rather than the outcome of knowing?
Looking for more inspiration on the power of practice, check out these great resources (one longer and one shorter)
The Practice, by Seth Godin (quite possibly my favourite of his books)
The Gap, a short video of an interview with Ira Glass
