The 3 Foundations of Intentional Practice…
We all know that practice is key to becoming a master at anything, right? But did you know that there are 3 things that all coaches do to intentionally instill fundamental skills in their students and athletes? There are actually 3 basic foundations of intentional practice that help anyone create more results from their practice.
What are the 3 things that will increase your foundation through intentional practice?
- Model the behavior/skill you want to teach
- Give yourself ample time for practice
- Celebrate your successes
If you approach practice intentionally with these 3 facets, you’ll find yourself becoming more skilled in whatever behavior you choose… At HAP we believe that if you can improve your relationships you can improve your life, so we focus on the fundamentals of social-emotional intelligence and always encourage you to check out other blogs like our one purely on intent and how it’s a mainstay in relationships, check it out here!
1. Model the Behavior/Skill You Want To Teach
When you’re trying to show someone a new skill, oftentimes it doesn’t work to only show them the theory. Theory is extremely important and valuable, but it’s importance often comes much later in the learning process that some people might think. The smartest place to start when talking about SEI(social-emotional intelligence) and learning new behaviors is to model the new behavior for the person you’re trying to teach or ask someone to model the behavior you’re trying to learn.
As humans, we originally and organically learn by mimicking. Long before we could understand complex theories or jargon, we learned by watching and imitating… It’s an innate skill. So when we’re able to watch someone else, who is proficient, perform the skills or behaviors it’s much easier for us to comprehend the mechanics.
Model the behavior you want to teach and then give ample time for practice…
2. Give Yourself Ample Time Practice
The second part of becoming better at anything is to practice!
Give yourself the opportunity to practice with the new skills, ideas or behaviors you’re trying to instill in yourself. It’s so easy to compare ourselves to others and not think that we are capable because our skill level in that moment doesn’t match theirs.
That’s unrealistic thinking!
Be kind to yourself and give yourself ample time to practice the new skills you’re learning! Put yourself in situations that are slightly more uncomfortable than you’d like to be and continue to practice even through failures.
Nobody got there overnight, neither will you!
3. Celebrate successes
Remember what we said about giving yourself ample time to practice?
Also, give yourself small wins to reinforce your learning…
If you don’t give yourself small wins, it’s hard to incentivize the practice. Don’t throw yourself in too quickly and make sure you stack small wins. By the time you look back your next “small win” might look like the toughest conversation of your life going way better than expected…
Inc. agrees that the science shows we should celebrate our success… so always make sure you let your mind get the reward of a success!
Overall the importance of practice is evident and the need to create conditions that set you up for ultimate progress through practice is important. When you’re intentional about the ways you practice and you understand the things required to create progress, it’s a lot easier to maintain positive relationship with yourself even through failures.
Use these three tenets and foundations of intentional practice to increase performance and progress from your practice.
Thanks for reading and remember,
HAPpy Relationships…
HAPpy Life…
The HAP Training Team