The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle is the book our team is reading for the month of November. This book dives into growing and developing yourself to create talent. From the beginning, he speaks about the science of talent by growing more myelin. The book is divided into three different elements of the talent code: deep practice, ignition, and master coaching. The principles can get lost in the neurological and scientific talk but the more you understand the process and the reasons for practice the principles become easier to apply.

 

Deep Practice

This is one of the first steps of the talent code. Practice needs to be effective and efficient. To develop and grow you have to take action. You need to think of building skills just like building muscles, it takes a time to develop. Practicing skills need to be highly targeted and error-focused to adjust and correct the skill fast instead of going through the motions. Practices without thinking or building are just a practice wasting time. Another great reminder is that you have to stretch yourself making mistakes and failing to reach the next level. You don't get better by just coasting through the process. You get better by failing and quickly correcting what you can.

 

Cycle:

1. Pick a target

2. Reach for it

3. Evaluate the gap between the target and the reach

4. Return to step one.

 

“Skill is myelin insulation that wraps neural circuits and that grows according to certain signals.” The myelin wraps around nerve fibers and increases the strength, speed, and accuracy to make the skill process smoother. The argument and conclusion are practice make myelin, myelin makes perfect. The myelin is strengthen based on what you do and continues to wrap and build on one another. It is hard to teach an old dog a new trick, same is true with humans. Hitting around age fifty the myelin starts to peak and the ability to build more myelin is difficult. This is why most experts start at a younger age. It has been estimated that it takes about 10,000 hours or 10 years of deep practice to master a skill. You are training your brain to build skills.  

 

Rule One: CHUNK IT UP

Absorb the Whole Thing - Break it into Chunks - Slow it Down

Rule Two: REPEAT IT

Rule Three: LEARN TO FEEL IT

 

“To get good, it’s helpful to be willing or even enthusiastic, about being bad. Baby steps are the royal road to skill.”