The One Surefire Way to Excel and Skyrocket Your Skills

Develop skills by delegating tasks to your subconscious mind.

Do you know what all the people who are exceptional at something have in common?

It doesn’t matter if they are amazing public speakers, world-class athletes, renowned business owners, ahead of their time innovators or incredible parents.

Sure, they all have their little tricks and hacks and their own personal style that make them stand out.

But what they all have in common is the following:

They all went through a ridiculous amount of repetition and exercise and they have always kept their willingness to learn and change.

Not exactly what you wanted to hear, hu? If you were looking for a magic pill that could do all the legwork for you, I have to disappoint you. There is no magic pill.

I know that this is not what people want to hear, but what they need to hear.

There is no magic pill

I have been hitting the gym for about ten years now and I have the body to show for it. Every now and then, someone at the gym approaches me and asks me some form of a “How do I get buff?” question. And my answer is always the same.

Eat right, train right, sleep right (willingness to change) and do that for at least three years (repetition).

99% of them then stare at me with a confused look as they have expected some super-secret hack. Maybe they thought I’d low-key look left and right, before pulling them closer, lowering my voice and initiating them into the circle of the enlightened. Nuh-uh, nothing to see here.

If you don’t believe me and think I am just keeping the success secrets from you because I want them all for my own, here’s another example.

Kofi Frimpong was the only one of four startup founders to secure an investment from Will Smith during a pitch contest. Did he use a secret psychological hack by referencing one of Smith’s movies? No. Did he just get lucky? No.

So what did he do? Practice and repetition. Turns out he built his career around pitching and has previously won many pitch contests. I don’t know exactly how often he has practiced and pitched something in his life, but I’m guessing at least a three-digit number, maybe even four. Also, I’m pretty sure he’s had to change his approach and style more than once.

Another one? Check out the many articles on how to become a great writer that are on Medium. Apart from different tips about headlines, parataxis and hypotaxis, you will find a common theme: Write as much as you can. Repetition is key.

Why people are reluctant to repetition and change

So if these two things are the way to go, why are people reluctant to do so? For two simple reasons.

First, repetition always means a certain kind of grind. It means hours and hours of beating on your craft. And that is hard and not always fun.

Second, a willingness to learn and change always means that you have to admit that you aren’t perfect. And although we all know it, sometimes this is difficult to admit.

Why repetition is crucial to high performance

Apart from the obvious reason that you can only get better if you practice something, repetition has another benefit. It allows you to delegate certain tasks to your subconscious mind.

Take writing, for example. When you start to write on a computer, most of your focus and attention flows into looking for the right letter to hit on the keyboard. There isn’t much brainpower left for you to think about great analogies, witty endings or three-item-lists.

But through repetition, you can shift this task to your subconscious mind. Your brain learns that an “S” is next to an “A” and your fingers hit the keys without you having to think about it. That means you can focus on your writing.

This mechanism is true for any skill you can think of. Public speaking? Once you can control your body language and intonation without thinking about them, you can focus on what you want to say.

Working in sales? Once you have the blueprint of a sales call in your head and don’t have to think about what to say next, you can redirect your attention. For example to how your customers feel, what they say and what makes them happy.

The more you can delegate to your subconscious mind, the more you can focus on what really matters.

And to delegate something to your subconscious, your brain requires repetition. Tons of it.

Improvement requires a willingness to unlearn

It ain’t what you know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so. — Mark Twain

But repetition is only one half of the story. Often when you want to learn something new, you first have to unlearn old patterns. You have to be willing to change. You have to make a critical mental step and admit that you are not perfect. That you did not necessarily do things wrong, but maybe in a way that was not optimal. Only then can you learn, change and improve

How to apply these two steps in your daily life

So what does this mean in practice? What kind of implications can we draw from this for our daily life?

If you want to become excellent at something, you have to make two crucial steps.

First, you have to identify in which area your skills are lacking and what exactly is holding you back. Is your ability to lead your team at work really impaired by your leadership skills? Or is it just a lack of understanding of the project that keeps you from directing your focus to organizing your team?

Can you really not lose weight because your metabolism is too slow? Or because you cut your workouts short and everyone at Dunkin’ Donuts knows your first name?

Whatever it is that you are lacking, admit that you are not perfect (no biggie, nobody is) and be willing to change.

Second, drill down on what you want to improve and put in the work and repetitions until you get better. Focus on the particular skill you want to improve and repeat until you master it. I used to be pretty bad at squatting compared to my other lifts because I had a shitty technique.

So I have set a habit of doing 30 squats with focus on form, every morning. I still don’t have perfect squatting technique, but I improved a lot by just putting in the reps every day. When giving presentations, I used to use a lot of filler words (uhm, so, like). So I forced myself to practice presenting again and again and again until I could do it without them. Practice makes perfect.

If you want to improve, think long-term

When you want to improve and become good at something, there are two ways you can go about it. You can either look for quick fixes or magic pills, like putting a wedge under your heels when squatting or using lots of notes when presenting. The problem is that these are only quick fixes — they mask the symptoms instead of healing the disease, so to speak.

There is nothing wrong with using a little short-term help every now and then to make life easier. But if you are serious about becoming better and improving yourself, think long term. And in the long run, the hard work will pay off.

Repetition and willingness to change are not always easy. They are not what people want to hear. But they are what works.

~ Moreno