PRACTICE AND REPETITION

The brain contains billions of neurons. Each neuron links to so many others that the entire network has trillions of connections, making the brain the most complicated known object in the universe.

These connections are constantly rewiring themselves every second. Your brain is physically different from one moment to the next. The brain that you had before reading this book is different from the brain you have now. Motor memory allows us to learn and master new skills. The brain recruits and forms neural networks, employing our eyes, ears, arms, legs, fingers, or mouth to facilitate the motions required for certain skills. After the basic motions are mastered, the brain recruits additional neurons to refine the motions.

If you look at all the greatest athletes, musicians or performers, they will all have one thing in common—relentless practice and repetition.

It is this practice and repetition that forms and builds the neural pathways that make their extraordinary performance possible.

In his bestselling book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell describes what he calls “the story of success.” One of his observations is that it takes ten thousand hours to master something. We develop this mastery through practice and repetition.

Tiger Woods, Stephen Curry, Cristiano Ronaldo, LeBron James, Michael Phelps, Tom Brady, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley and Beyoncé all have an intense commitment to their craft. They practice relentlessly and in doing so, create and refine the neural networks that allow them to become masters of their chosen professions.

If you want to master anything in life, it will require a passionate commitment to years of practice. Practice makes perfect.