Develop your Competence: Repetition with Reflection
Around 10 years ago, I didn’t enjoy running at all because I found my calves get bigger despite my trying of different techniques.
One day, I was in Zaragoza, Spain for a weekend trip. I stayed in a local person’s house with other two good friends of mine. The host is a super fit guy; we could tell when we saw him and the vibe he generated. I was excited to learn more about his exercise routines because I am a big fan of doing exercise.
He gave us a tour around his house when we arrived. The house is decorated nicely with different family pictures and his achievement in studying and sports. But the thing amazed me the most was different numbers near his working desk. I saw these numbers increase as the dates changed. These numbers made me curious. Seeing me stare at these numbers, the host smiled “I tracked my running every week, when the numbers changed, I felt motivated to practice more because I found the sense of my growth. That’s a nice feeling, isn't it? Do you like running?” ,
His words and the numbers hooked me!
And you may guess what happened after that! Did I like the guy? Or I liked running?
His words and the numbers hooked me!
And you may guest what happened after that! I liked the guy? Or I liked running?
The answer is both!
I started telling myself to try his technique to train myself to run. The feeling of developing my competence in running over-weighted the worry about the big calves and yes I found that I could do a longer yoga to linear my calves. After each day of running, I reflected on the time and the way I ran and then set a new target for the next day. I then could attend a marathon and also went running up and down to the hill every day.
With the repetition and tracking the progress, I became better at running. And I found the same thing happen whenever I learn other things such as speaking. I would schedule to speak on one topic everyday and track the time as well as the points that I delivered in each speech. The next day I would challenge myself to do at least one thing differently in the same speech such as speaking in less time while delivering the same points. And anytime I did not repeat the practicing process or reflecting to improve, I did not feel a sense of growth then I did not motivate much to practice more.
So, repeat practicing one skill then reflect to improve upon that will help you and me to develop better everyday then be more confident leading to better results in what we do.
Join me today, everyday to try the technique my friends!
P/S: This topic is inspired by Cspeaking gym - the leadership development program where 7Cs of leadership is empowered: Confidence, Competence, Communication, Creativity, Collaboration, Commitment, Compassion.