004 | TALENT DEVELOPS IN QUIET PLACES
WHAT ARE YOU DOING WHEN NO ONE IS WATCHING?
In the end, the only difference between who we are now and who we want to be, is what we do every day. It’s in our daily habits that the secret of our future lies. Repetition is the only answer to the question of whether we are making progress towards our potential, or if our progress is misguided. We are able to discover those deep truths through consistent repetition in routine, but the secret to our future can only be sought in solitude through perfect practice.
Perfection can mean one of two things for you: being the best, or being your best.
The way I see it is: if I can become my best, I am already the best. With this mindset, you become the competition. It can be quite liberating to know the only opinion that matters is yours, and what you do makes all the difference.
Perfect practice, on the other hand, is simply reaching for your own personal greatness in a targeted and focused manner. Isolation allows you the space to fire specific neural circuits that you cannot activate in group or team environments. Working in this setting provides you with instant and honest feedback that you can use to improve immediately, if you choose to use it.
When you spend time completely alone, intentionally developing particular skills and techniques, you receive information about yourself on a level that no other person can give you. The hard part is being open to receiving it. Many of us avoid self-reflection for fear of the unknown; we might discover something we don’t like about ourselves, and it’s easier to just keep it buried away. But if we don’t look, how will we know? If we don’t try, how can we get better?
We are social creatures and we like being around people, but if we do not work on ourselves in private then we will never be prepared to perform under the public eye. It’s not easy, but it is necessary. A grand house-warming party never happened before the home was built. Anything you see on the surface, took energy and resources to develop underneath.
Do not fear that alone time, embrace it. This is where the magic happens. When a caterpillar spins itself into a silky cocoon, eventually it re-emerges as a beautiful butterfly.