Micro Class: Want to Build Talent? Hit the Sweet Spot

Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another micro class. This one is on the sweet spot. It's inspired by the Little Book of Talent by Daniel Coyle. Awesome book. So the sweet spot, this is in reference to the idea that if we want to cultivate our talent, we need to deliberately put practice, engage in deliberate practice. Research says somewhere around 10,000 hours is what truly world class performers put in over the course of their careers as they approach a truly world class performance. So then what is deliberate practice though? What does that really mean? And here's what Dan Coyle tells us. He says we need to find our sweet spot. The sweet spot which is right in between our comfort zone. Comfort zone, right. This is where things are easy, right? We're not stretching ourselves in our comfort zone. And guess what, you're not deliberately practicing. If all you're doing is the easy stuff at this stage, you succeed about 80% of the time.

80% or more right now.

In the sweet spot, you stretch yourself right to the edge of your current abilities. That's challenging, requires an intense focus. You're deliberately practicing a new skill at this point, he says you're successful about 50 to 80% of the time. That's where you want to be. Making mistakes, not succeeding every single time.

That's just doing what you're already good at.

But you also want to pay attention and not go too far beyond your sweet spot, where then you're in your survival zone. At your survival zone, you break down, you're feeling overwhelmed, likely burning yourself out, confused, not having fun. Success is less than 50%. You want to be challenging yourself intensely, but hanging out in the sweet spot. Another way we talk about this in the context of goals is to imagine going from our comfort zone to our stretch zone.

Right?

Another word or phrase for the sweet spot. And you don't want to go so far that you go into your style snap zone or your panic zone.

Right.

Tall Ben Shahar says if you want to set good goals, get out of your comfort zone into your stretch zone, but not so far that you go into your snap zone or your panic zone is actually the phrase he uses. I like snap zone, which represents the rubber band stretching out. Stretch into your sweet spot, not so far that you snap and just kind of lose it. So there you go. If you want to deliberately practice, find your sweet spot between your comfort zone and survival zone, right at the edge of your ability. 50 to 80% is the basic success rate that you want to aim for.

And have fun with that.

Here's to deliberately practicing as we cultivate the myelin, which is what's required to improve our talent. Check out the notes on the talent code and this one, the Little Book of Talent, for more on that.

All right, look forward to sharing more. Have another awesome day.

See ya.

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