How to get better at things
And why your exercise should actually help you do that.
The title is kind of vague, I know. But isn't that all we want? To succeed at our various endeavors in life, to perform at a higher level and perhaps master a skill, or many skills? Even our fitness pursuits involve mastery: we want to become stronger, faster and better. We want to master our body, improve its form, and become something more.
There is a disconnect in fitness between skill and strength/fitness/health, though: we have no real, strong definition of what these things are, beyond an array of adjectives and technical terms. This lack of clarity as to what these terms mean makes it very hard to figure out how to train for them.
So it seems to me that our first goal should be to clearly define what strength, fitness, and health mean—something I’ve done many times in this newsletter (here’s a few picks to get you started: on strength, defining healthy training, and fitness).
If you endeavor upon a path towards "fitness" (which is the general heading that will loom over all of this, as it's the purpose of this newsletter), you must have a clear and thorough understanding of what is your goal. Aesthetic goals are easy to pick, they're all around us—reduced body fat, increased muscle mass, getting "toned," ripped abs and bigger arms—everywhere we look, there's someone or something promising us those things.
Once we look beyond those superficial goals we enter a more vague realm: I want to get "stronger," "more fit," “healthier.” But often we still hold on to the ideas from the superficial: fears of "bulkiness" or getting hurt from exercise, insidious ideas put in our minds by marketing campaigns or sales techniques used to direct us towards certain products and away from the hard work that, well, works!
Back to the point: once we've established what our goal is—usually something sport or competition-related is sufficient motivation for most people. There are so many options: martial arts, endurance events (marathons, triathlons, etc), powerlifting, Olympic weightlifting, strongman/woman, soccer, softball, tennis, winter sports (skiing, snowshoeing, etc), the list goes on endlessly.
Often people say, "Oh, I can't do that! I'm too (insert limitation here)!" The truth is, there are leagues and associations for every sport, strength or otherwise. But even if you’re not a sports person, it’s okay: sports are just an easy way to contextualize skill training, but setting a goal to improve at any physical activity works just as well—progress does not apply only to competitive activities.
This is the part where normally we would start talking about micro and macro cycles, setting short and long term goals, percentages, cross-training and a whole bunch of other technical stuff, but I'm going to skip that. You can find it anywhere on the internet. What we're going to look at is the why: the mindset behind achieving.
I've attended lots and lots of lectures, seminars and workshops on a wide variety of topics. I've trained with and observed athletes of all levels. I've mentored and been mentored. I've studied, trained, and studied some more. And you know what I've discovered? You've got to work hard to achieve something. Crazy idea, isn't it? The common thread I've seen time and time again in the successful, no matter the arena, is dedication. It may seem over-simplified and maybe even cliché, but they say it again and again: if you want to be good at something, do it all the time. If you fail, try again and again.
You see, most of us only have a passing interest in most things: we see something, admire it, and say, "I want to do that." We try it, and usually, we're good at it or we aren't. Most then pursue that at which they naturally excel, and dismiss that at which they initially fail. Some will persist, but once they hit one, two or perhaps even three obstacles (if they're very driven), they abandon the pursuit in question.
There is nothing shameful about this process. It is the way we find out what we're good at. But if you find a thing that you love, something that you want to do so badly you can't keep away, you must give yourself to it. This is not always a healthy path: it requires working through injuries, neglect of job, family, friends and more. To master something, to be an expert or even elite, requires much sacrifice.
Not all of us want this, though. Most will be satisfied with competence in a field. We can take lessons from the obsessed, learn how to apply the concepts of mastery to those things in which we may only take a passing interest. If you want to be good at something, find a qualified teacher, learn the foundations thoroughly, and work on it every day. It's as simple as that. Maybe not easy, but uncomplicated. If you want to be good at something, do at least a little work on it every day. If you want to be a hand-balancer, work on spending time on your hands every chance you get. If you want to be an Olympic lifter, work on your foundation lifts every day. If you want to be a master of a martial art, drill your forms and techniques at every opportunity.
Again, this does not mean that you need to drive yourself into the ground and be consumed entirely with your physical pursuits. There is certainly a balancing act between life and practice, but practice must be exactly that: regular, consistent repetition of an action with the intention of improvement. Keep that as your north start and you will get better.
Success in skill-building requires significant work: progress does not come without considerable effort. It is important to remember that strength, fitness, and even health are skills in some way. Marketing in the fitness industry has lead us to believe that fitness and the fit aesthetic are things that can be easily achieved with a pill, a program or a gadget. It couldn't be further from the truth. No matter your goal, you must work to achieve it. Understand this and success will come—perhaps not immediately, but it will, and you will be all the richer for it.