Sabbatical

My Cherished Reader:

It is sabbatical time for me.  After seven years of steadily churning out blogs for my six blog sites it is time for me to step away.  There will be no new posts for the next ten weeks.  I will resume with some fresh insights and thoughts after Labor Day.

Thank you for your consistent support of this blog.  I cherish your interest, your readership and your comments. 

My back-list is still available and I encourage you to continue to dip into that as often as you wish.

I will post an occasional oldie-but-goodie from time to time on social media sites, but mostly this is a regathering time for me.

See you in September.

P Michael Biggs

Up-Words

Words of Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

A New Word about Habits

When it comes to skill development, belief is a huge factor with which to deal.  The question one has to come to grips with is this:  Do I BELIEVE that I can change my bad habit and turn it into a productive action?

“For a habit to stay changed, people must believe change is possible.”

~Charles Duhigg - The Power of Habit

Once habits form, our minds go on auto pilot

and stay there until we force a change, and if we have formed a bad habit, we will continue to produce the results of that bad habit until we forcibly make whatever change is necessary.

Now keep in mind that the whole purpose of this post is to help us develop good skills and habits whether we play golf, play music or think productively

Some really great news … you can reprogram your brain.  It will just take a great deal of determination.

How many times have you heard these words: “Don’t practice a bad swing”?  If you have an unfortunate bad swing, you only continually reinforce this bad habit every time you use a golf club or ball bat until you get in touch with the bad swing and begin to fix it.

As a musician, do you continually stumble over the same technical phrase of music?  The principle applies here as well.  Fix the problem, learn proper technique, improve your skill one note at a time and then increase speed.

That is the secret – break your skill down into increments of correct posture and movement.  I remember reading of a professional golfer who was fixing the exact problem we are focusing on here – he had a lousy swing, and he continued to practice that swing every time he picked up a club.

His method, and the one I suggest here is this – go at a snail’s pace, literally, and do it dozens, yeah hundreds of time, but do it perfectly. 

DO IT PERFECTLY EVERY TIME!

I remember reading that my golfer friend did just as I’m suggesting and when the club finally made contact with the ball, it only moved three inches off the tee.  That, my friends, is a slow swing.  AND he fixed his problem after successfully performing a thousand PERFECT swings.

P Michael Biggs

Words of Encouragement

Words of Inspiration

Success Verses Mastery

My thoughts tonight are applicable to everyone – every trade, every skill, every hobby, every pursuit.  My visual is musical, but the content spreads its wings and reaches a broad audience. 

And so we read …

What is the difference between success and mastery? 

~Success means you sometimes hit your goal.

~Mastery means you hit your goal again and

again. 

It’s that simple.

When we operate in the zone of peak performance, it is like visiting an old friend and our conversation picks up where we last ended.  Mastery is simply operating in the zone of perfect performance.  We keep hitting our stride, our mark, or whatever metaphor one may wish to apply.

Success is good.  With a success mentality we have some good highs and we ride them like the wind.   But with mastery we are so in touch with our mind, our muscles, and our skill that we effortlessly deliver to perfection time and again.

And what is the path to mastery?  It is the gap between where you are and where you want to go.  I’m going to borrow something you’ll see dozens of times in London when riding the subway – MIND THE GAP!

The bottom line is this … we pay the price and do the skill with perfection that we seek to master.  It has to flow naturally and perfectly.

Examples:

In typing on the keyboard, some words just seem to flow naturally for me, as in most of the words in this sentence.  I don’t slow down and falter or search for the proper key as I type the words in this paragraph. 

On the other hand, I have to slow down with the word “inquiry.”  I use this word a dozen times a week at the bank.  I’m faster at it today than I was one year ago, but I haven’t reached mastery level. 

In golf, perhaps you have a nasty slice to the right when using your driver.  Will you continue practicing your slice, or will you self-analyze and perhaps seek some coaching to master this particular club? 

In music, if you were asked to perfect the E-Major scale how would you proceed? 

In both instances, the experts suggest that you first slow down the process.  Take the golf swing at a snail’s pace.  Have an instructor analyze every inch of your movements - feet placement, elbow position, grip on the club and on and on.  The idea here is perfecting the movements, not winning a race.  And then repeat perfectly until mastery takes over and the slice is eliminated.

The same is true with the E-Major scale.  You slow it down to turtle speed.  Make sure every note is played correctly and every finger position is properly executed until you can play this scale with perfection every time.

Success is good.

Mastery is where 

the professional lives.

P Michael Biggs

Words of Encouragement

Words of Inspiration