2017 Learning: Two Things (2 min. rd.)

I am sharing a few things that I’ve learned so far this year. These are habits that I am trying to work on. I’ll post the links below.

Unsolicited Advice:

Stop giving or listening to unsolicited advice. Ugh! Isn’t this difficult? Maybe not for everyone, but most of us usually have an itch to volunteer our “wonderful” advice to people.

Thomas G. Plante Ph.D. ABPP in “Giving People Advice Rarely Works. This Does,” explains what does work:

“If we really want to encourage behavior (or belief) change in others we actually need to move away from advice giving (especially when our advice is unsolicited) and toward modeling. In other words, we need to be an example for others rather than telling them what to do.”

Remember that practice makes perfect:

Peter Economy, “3 Simple Steps to Becoming an Expert in Anything,” explains the following:

“Becoming an expert overnight just isn’t going to happen. You are going to have to put a lot of work and dedication into becoming an expert at anything. In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell says that it takes about 10,000 hours of practice to achieve mastery in a particular field.“

According to the article, while not every field may take that many hours to achieve an expert level, you still have to dedicate many hours to your field.

Also, have you notice the how the quality of your work lessens when you don’t practice diligently? I get frustrated because I can see the difference. If we respect our craft/field, we need to practice, practice, and practice. Oh yeah, did I mention that we have to practice? Yes, that much. Sighs! I know. (I wonder I’m giving unsolicited advice here?)