Episode Transcript

Welcome back to THE a.m guys.

So I want to talk about practice today, and I want to talk about the point for practice first. And this what I mean by practice.

You are actually focusing on improving a certain skill set in your life or a certain habit, and by doing that, you are having repetition of applying that skill set, or you’re having repetition of applying that habit in your life. And here’s the point of practice, it’s to improve. Okay? Now the main thing that a lot of people think practice is is I’m just going to continue to repeat what I like and enjoy about whatever it is I’m trying to learn, going to repeat the easy parts over and over again. That’s not practice. Practice is actually really identifying where you’re weak and where you struggle with and then improving those areas.

So an example of this is growing up. I took a lot of music lessons and played a lot of piano, and I had a music teacher once tell me, like, Hey, Michael, you really like to play, but you don’t practice. And I was like, what does that mean? And I was a teenager at this time. I think I was around 15-16, years old, but that’s one of the things that he was telling me. It was like you like to play and you don’t actually practice. Practice means finding where you are failing and finding what you’re weak at, and then begin improving those areas and adding to your skill sets. Playing is something that I enjoy, and so anytime like you are, like wanting to improve or wanting to change, and you’re just doing the easy part. And this out applies everything else in life. You’re just doing the easy part. You’re doing what it comes easy and naturally to you. That’s not practice.

Practice is actually finding where you’re weak at and then focusing on that area to improve that area, focusing on what needs to happen and occur. Now this applies to business. It applies to relationships. It applies to soft skills, hard skills, whatever you’re doing, if you can identify your weaknesses, if you can identify where you are negative, and you guys have heard me talk about being positive, neutral or negative, if you can identify where you’re either neutral or negative, and then you focus on those areas to get them into a positive momentum and positive forward movement. And that’s really what practice is.

And practice, especially in business, really comes down to identifying constraints. So I did a couple episodes earlier, and I was talking about identifying the constraints, identifying the weaknesses in the company, identifying the weaknesses in the process, and understanding what the real problems are, not just the results of the problem. Oftentimes, we fix the results of a problem that’s three or four levels deeper down, and as a result, we don’t improve. And this is part of what practice is actually finding the problem deep down, understanding what is causing the lack of cash flow, understanding what is causing the lack of teamwork, understanding what is causing the current fires you’re trying to put out in your life.

It takes work, and it takes consistency to identify the weaknesses and the constraints and then to improve them. It also takes consistency to measure because you cannot actually properly practice. If there’s no standard to measure against, you cannot actually improve. If there’s no standard and finish line to measure against, did I put in the work that got the results that I was trying to achieve? And it’s very easy to measure things if you set goals and timelines. This is where we want to be in about six months. This is what needs to be accomplished. These are the things that need to be built. And this is where we should be in six months. That ‘s a goal. And a goal is simply a standard of measurement for your work.

Are you going to be able to accomplish that? And the point of practice is to actually achieve your standard and measurement of work. The point of practice is to actually move forward in life against that measurement. Like cool, I know where I’m headed, and I can say whether I’m winning or failing.

And so with practice and with finding the problems that you need to solve your life will change drastically if you apply this to any area. And I talk about the five areas a lot, where you have relationship, you have finances, right? You have property, you have work and you have health, apply this to any one of those areas in your life to find what you need to improve at. And then each one of those areas will improve and practice again. Like I said, has to have a goal, right?

For instance, cool, I play football. I am a wide receiver. I’m going to practice not fumbling. I’m going to practice not fumbling the ball after I catch. And I’m going to practice passes completed. That’s practice. What’s the goal? Okay, the goal is to fumble the ball 25% less. It’s that easy.

So anyways, you guys, take this, apply it, and I’ll catch you later. Peace.