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Hello listeners, it's Friday, April 26, 2024, and you're joining another episode of The

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Science of Self, where you improve your life from the inside out.

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Today we're diving into the power of consistent action, with a concept from Peter Holland's

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book, The Art of Practice.

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Meet Daniel.

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He's the kind of guy who had loved the story about Milo that we looked at earlier.

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More than anything in the world, Daniel relishes the feeling of physical mastery.

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He loves feeling strong, resilient, and capable.

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He loves the sensation of staring down a challenge and conquering it with nothing more than his

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bare hands, so to speak.

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And so for a few months now, he's been building his strength at the gym day by day, and working

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on his self-discipline and confidence in the process.

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He has the routine all lined up.

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He works out hard six days out of seven and rests on Fridays.

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And each day is devoted to a particular compound lift, which he trains to failure as often

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as he can.

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He's getting especially good at squats, and is well on his way to being able to squat

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twice his body weight, a goal he never thought he'd achieve.

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Basically, Daniel is strong.

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One day, his little sister challenges him to come to her ballet class.

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It'll be fun, she tells him.

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Daniel agrees reluctantly, but guesses there could be certain upsides.

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Within just 15 minutes of the warm-up exercises, however, Daniel politely excuses himself, red-faced

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and gasping for breath, as he tries to conceal the fact that his thigh muscles are on fire,

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and he's close to falling over and never getting up again.

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He looks on as the class continues breezily moving through their développés and rendez-vous.

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He doesn't understand it.

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Isn't he strong?

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What happened?

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The issue here is that Daniel isn't really strong.

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It's more accurate to say he's good at doing the thing he keeps training himself to do.

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Go to the gym, adopt a particular stance, position a standardized bar across a particular point

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on his shoulders, then move through a very specific sequence of motions, maintaining

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the very same form every time, then putting the bar down again, then going home again.

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Daniel is extremely good at this, along with the few other lifts he's mastered.

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But his mistake is to focus so exclusively on this small set of tasks that he's allowed

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himself to think that this is identical to building strength.

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Daniel only attends the ballet class, a thing he assumed he'd do with ease.

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He's suddenly attempting something completely novel.

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He has to move his body in unfamiliar ways, using different muscles in different ways,

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to achieve control and poise in a manner he had never before thought to develop.

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And despite having muscly legs like two thick tree stumps, he can't do it.

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Scholars at Johns Hopkins have found that most people tend to focus on repetitive practice

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when trying to master a skill, such as endlessly shooting hoops from the same spot on the court,

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or going through the same list of vocabulary words over and over again.

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They may create a false sense of their own competence, that is, until they enter an unfamiliar

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situation.

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Hopes one day they encounter a basketball net that's not the usual height or size,

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or they have to talk on the spot to a native speaker without knowing what the conversation

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is going to be about, and they freeze.

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Suddenly, all that mastery seems to fly out the window.

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Researchers suggest that practicing a slightly modified version of the task you want to master

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can lead to faster and more effective learning.

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By varying your practice, you can learn and improve more efficiently compared to just

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repeating the exact same thing multiple times in a row.

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The study explored the idea of re-consolidation, which is when existing memories are retrieved

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and then strengthened and modified with new knowledge.

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Lead researcher Pablo A. Chelnik at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine explained

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that,

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What we've found is if you practice a slightly modified version of a task you want to master,

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you actually learn more and faster than if you just keep practicing the exact same thing

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multiple times in a row.

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Our results are important because little was known before about how re-consolidation works

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in relation to motor skill development.

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This shows how simple manipulations during training can lead to more rapid and larger

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motor skill gains because of re-consolidation.

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The goal is to develop novel behavioral interventions and training schedules that give people more

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improvement for the same amount of practice time.

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Experts in a control group who didn't practice a modified version of a task actually performed

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25% worse than participants who did switch up their practice.

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Luckily for Daniel, the researchers emphasize that it's only minor adjustments that are

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needed to get this improvement.

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So Daniel might find that his weight training program is improved by just slightly changing

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the way he does his ordinary lifts.

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This might mean using bars of different thicknesses, practicing with and without gloves, working

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with and without chalk, training sometimes inside and sometimes outside, wearing different

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shoes or workout gear, or even attempting slight variations on form.

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This helps him to improve faster and get more done when it comes to these specific exercises.

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But what about Daniel's main goal, to be strong?

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If Daniel can find ways to incorporate other completely different kinds of training into

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his routine, he may find that he achieves this broader goal far more quickly.

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For example, he could incorporate more flexibility and isometric exercises and work on his cardiovascular

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fitness.

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He could start including free-form exercises that challenge his body in a more holistic

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way, such as rock climbing, co-steering, martial arts, obstacle courses, calisthenics,

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or even parkour.

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By being challenged and developed in all these different ways, his strength is more comprehensive

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and robust than the linear strength he'd develop in the gym alone.

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Let's explore another example to get a good idea of how to apply this principle, both

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to improve the immediate task at hand and also to improve more general capacities.

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We'll consider the example of preparing to deliver a specific speech on a set date.

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Step 1.

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Rehearse the basic skill.

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Naturally, you need to start somewhere, so get back to basics and figure out the main

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skills you need to perform the specific tasks you're practicing.

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In this example, this may mean running through your speech once, in full, under exactly the

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same conditions as you expect to deliver it for real.

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You might not be able to get to the exact location, but let's say you're able to find

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a big hall that's roughly the same size with a podium and set up not unlike the one you'll

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face on the big day.

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Your first practice is just to go through the speech in this way a few times without

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making too many mistakes and without getting too nervous.

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Step 2.

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Wait and consolidate.

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Researchers believe that the best results came from allowing for a minimum of six hours

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between practice session variations.

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In this example, that should be pretty easy.

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You give it a rest and stop practicing for the day and plan to return the same time the

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next day to do your next practice session.

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Step 3.

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Modify your practice session.

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Time to mix it up.

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The next day, you try a few different approaches, such as speaking slightly faster or slower,

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breaking the presentation into smaller parts, or practicing under different conditions.

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Maybe you experiment with different gestures and tone of voice, slightly switch the order

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of some of your slides, or position yourself differently on the podium.

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Step 4.

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Modify and refine.

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Keep going.

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Don't stop after just one round of variations.

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Keep practicing with different tweaks and adjustments.

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Each time you practice, focus on refining specific aspects of your speaking, such as

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vocal variety, body language, or storytelling techniques.

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You want to keep the variation slight enough that it's still essentially the same speech,

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but you're doing what Daniel did when he slightly changed the type of bar he used or

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switched up his gym shoes.

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You're just exploring that narrow little zone around the skill you're developing.

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Step 5.

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Don't forget to cross-train.

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What else might help you indirectly strengthen the skills you're trying to master?

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Only you can answer this question, but in our example, we can imagine that things like

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learning breath control, relaxation, and mindfulness exercises, practice with elocution and enunciation,

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or simply methods for boosting confidence.

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Here's where you can get creative with mental rehearsal, too.

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By the time you've run through the above process a few times, you really will feel

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like you know your speech inside and out, and that you can tackle it, even if it should

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suddenly throw you a curveball on the day.

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Because you've not only practiced the skill itself, but also trained a degree of flexibility,

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you are more resilient and more creative.

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On the day you get up to the podium to make your speech, and you're struck by the fact

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that it feels like this is the hundredth time you're doing it.

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You're not nervous at all.

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You can deliver that speech with your eyes closed.

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On the way up to the podium, however, you suddenly trip on a cable that isn't ordinarily there,

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but is on this occasion because of the lighting that's been set up for the event.

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You stumble, and without thinking about it, make a quick joke that has people roaring

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with laughter.

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None of it was planned, but because you're so relaxed, you quickly recover and make the

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best of it.

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You get to the podium, smile and make your speech.

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On the spur of the moment, you decide to subtly change the first part, just based on the mood

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you're in and your intuition for what you think people might like.

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The audience loves it.

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You've taken a step toward not just being a great orator, but someone who can calmly

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and confidently speak even without notes or prompts.

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Because of the way you trained in flexibility, you're not thrown by the unexpected and actually

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end up overshooting and learning more than you even set out to.

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Flexibility is not just what you do, but how you do it.

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It's a mindset.

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As you practice with subtle variations, you're also teaching yourself to be limber and adaptable.

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You are simultaneously teaching yourself a kind of resilience and aliveness to the moment.

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When we practice, we can sometimes set up artificial scenarios and ultra-safe setups

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that don't really reflect the real world.

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But when you deliberately switch up what you're doing, you develop a kind of mental suppleness

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that makes you stronger in the face of the unknown rather than more vulnerable.

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Throw in a wild card now and then, try something new, like your little sister's ballet class,

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and be willing to think on your feet.

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At the same time, don't get too confident training a very narrow range of skills.

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Keep reminding yourself of what that skill looks like in vivo.

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Know when to take a break.

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Let's revisit an important point from the previous section, the value of taking a rest.

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Though it may seem paradoxical at first, sometimes the best way to do something is not to do

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it at all.

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Imagine that you're working your way through endless chemistry questions in an attempt to

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practice for the exam you have coming up in a few weeks.

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Time is short, and you're doing your best to cram.

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You wake up early, seal yourself in your study, and get stuck into paper after paper, answering

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tricky practice questions so that when you're facing the real exam paper, you'll know exactly

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what to do.

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By four p.m. that afternoon, your brain is mush, but you keep going.

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You encounter an especially challenging glitch that you just can't seem to work out.

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The problem is, you keep getting a particular kind of question wrong, but you don't know

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why.

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It's driving you mad.

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Finally, you give up and concede defeat and head to bed at midnight, exhausted.

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In the morning, you wake up and go to your study again for round two.

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Next time you look at the questions that stumped you yesterday and think to yourself,

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oh, I get it now, and you solve it.

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Has something like this ever happened to you?

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It turns out, you might not even need a long sleep overnight to get similar aha moments.

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We all sometimes make the mistake of thinking that it's only active and conscious effort

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that yields results.

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That's what makes us stay up until midnight, hacking away at a problem.

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But rest is vitally important.

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The big rests and the small ones.

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A study conducted by researchers at the National Institutes of Health reveals the critical

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role that resting plays in the process of learning new skills.

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Contrary to the common belief of continuous practice, the study found that taking short

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breaks during learning may be just as crucial as practice itself.

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The research involved recording the brainwaves of healthy volunteers as they practiced typing

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numbers with their left hands, followed by short breaks.

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Surprisingly, the volunteers' performance improved primarily during the rest periods,

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with brainwaves indicating memory consolidation happening during those breaks.

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The changes in brainwaves, specifically in the right hemispheres and neural networks

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associated with movement planning, correlated with the improvements seen during the rests.

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This is an important point.

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The learning itself was happening outside of the practice session, not during.

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According to study lead Leonardo G. Cohen, senior investigator at NIH's National Institute

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of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, everyone thinks you need to practice, practice, practice

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when learning something new.

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Instead, we found that resting early and often may be just as critical to learning as practice.

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Resting periods of rest, such as sleeping overnight, are extremely valuable, but the

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researchers wanted to challenge the idea that this was the only way to consolidate learning.

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When the team analyzed their data, not only did they discover that improvements were made

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in rest periods, but they also discovered that the gains made during the shorter waking

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rest periods between practice sessions were greater than the gains made between daily

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sessions, i.e., after the participants returned the next day and did the tests again after

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a night's sleep.

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That means that smaller rest periods were more powerful than longer periods of sleep.

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During a rest period, the brain is consolidating everything it has learned during the more

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active phase of practice, and this is observable in the changes of brain waves patterning

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in the brain.

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The research team was especially interested in using their findings to help people who

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have experienced stroke to rehabilitate and relearn the skills they lost.

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While they have not tested whether their conclusions would work for ordinary people who want to

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better master their chosen skill, it's worth paying attention to how you schedule your

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own break time when you practice.

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Instead of practice, practice, practice, it may be more effective to practice, rest, practice,

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rest.

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It may be that taking even micro breaks of around 10 seconds during your practice can

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help your brain properly absorb what it's learned.

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After every repetition you make, pause a little.

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During that moment, it will be as though your brain quickly replays a compressed memory

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of what you've just experienced.

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The researchers discovered that the brain literally goes over a version of what you've

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just practiced, only about 20 times faster, taking just a few seconds.

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Interestingly, they also found that the first few practice sessions tended to be the most

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critical for this process.

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If you just barge ahead without taking breaks of any size, you never give yourself that

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chance to consolidate and may find that you tend to forget huge chunks of what you've

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already covered.

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You may even notice that after a long, hard study session, you seemingly can only remember

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the last few minutes of it, for example.

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That's because the more separate instances of rest, the more effectively you learn.

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If you rest only once, you effectively consolidate only once, and it doesn't matter how long

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that rest was.

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Thinking of rest in this way reframes a break as a hidden rep where you're actually giving

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the idea time to sink in.

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It's like gradually pouring water into a potted plant.

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You pour some, wait for it to soak in, and pour a little more.

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This spacing effect not only feels more comfortable, but will help you learn more quickly in less

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time without you needing to burn yourself out.

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There's value in medium rest periods too.

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According to Time Magazine, the perfect break is having a 17-minute break after 52 minutes

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of practice or work.

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Built into this, however, can be many dozens of smaller 10-second breaks after each new

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chunk of information or repetition is encountered.

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Then, on the biggest scale, you have longer periods of deeper rest when you can sleep

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each day.

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And that's all for today on The Science of Self.

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If you're looking to delve deeper into the art of practice and mastering any skill, Peter

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Holland's book offers a wealth of insights.

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For more resources and to explore additional ways to improve yourself from the inside out,

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head over to the author's website at bit.ly.com.

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Thanks for joining us, and we'll see you next time.