Learning to suck.

Want to get good at something? Learn how to suck at it. Actually, in the beginning of any activity, you're probably going to be pretty bad, so it's not so much about learning how to suck, but rather, learning how to deal with the fact that you suck at it for the moment.  

That's the key actually. You're only going to suck for the moment, and the greater your tolerance for being bad, the greater your progress will be.  Unless you can begin to make tons of mistakes and begin to learn from them, you won't be able to grow.

I ran into a wonderful example of this recently. I was sitting in a cafe and heard an American guy speaking in Japanese to a woman. I thought his Japanese was pretty bad. In actuality, his pronunciation was pretty bad. As I continued to listen, I realized that his Japanese was actually great. I speak some Japanese and although I think my accent is much better than this guys, he can speak much more than I can. He has a much broader command of the language. This is due to the fact that he's willing to speak again and again and again(I asked him.) 

I have tended to be extremely cautious in my speaking of Japanese. I want to sound perfect and don't feel comfortable taking chances. Ultimately, this has really hindered my progress. 

I notice that in the areas of my life where I excel, I got to the point where I was willing to be bad, really bad until I got good at it.  

Create an Environment for Growth.

Tony Robbins often says that if you want to change the quality of true life, change your environment. Nothing can be more true. In my own life, I can see that certain environments make progress virtually inevitable while others actually hinder progress.

Environment can include your physical settings, the people you surround yourself with, the groups you belong to and the culture at your work.

If you think you can't do something, surround yourself with people who are doing it. If you want to work out, find a community of folks who work out all the time.  If you want to learn a language, surround yourself with people who speak that language. If you'd like a new job, find people who make it a habit to further their career. Once you find the poeple, progress occurs virtually on its own. That being said, it doesn't hurt to ask people about how they've achieved the things they've done. I find that people are almost always excited to share what they know.

Be Like Miles

There I was again.  I was attempting to learn how to play a Miles Davis solo on my guitar and it happened.  Everything was moving along nicely and then he played a line that I just couldn't figure out, let alone play. This happened just about every time a tried to transcribe someone's solo. Miles was in fact pretty good learn from because he tended to play very few notes and he played them slowly. I found this incredibly frustrating. I was beginning to think that I wasn't cut out for this type of activity or that I had a 'bad ear.'

I must have played that particular line in the solo 100 times. I'd hit rewind endlessly to no avail. I started from the beginning of the solo and reviewed the pieces I knew and then a new idea hit me. I thought that I should go through as many solos of miles that I could find and just learn the easy bits. If I could only get a few notes from each that was fine. I started doing this and within a few weeks I was astounded by the results. Suddenly I could hear all kinds of things that I hadn't been able to decipher a few weeks earlier. My ears had seemingly grown.

Here are a few ideas that make this work.

Slow down:
Whether you're learning a piece of music or practicing a martial art, from time to time, slowing down the tempo at which you take in information, or practice something will help you learn more smoothly than stumbling at a quick tempo.

Practice small, easy pieces:
Focus your efforts on very short discreet pieces that are very easy for you. Practicing something that is too difficult can prove to be counterproductive. Furthermore, it's an indication that you haven't really mastered the skill that lead up to that.

Practice pieces that you like:
Practicing pieces that you like will build greater and greater motivation to keep practicing versus building frustration.

By applying these guidelines, I've found that  I'm able to make progress at a good pace in places where I had previously been stuck. Although you may not end up sounding like Miles or your favorite musician, I think you'll be pleased with the results.