Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise

deliberate practice can revolutionize our thinking about human potential.

mental representations

the deliberate-practice class the goal was not to feed information to the students but rather to get them to practice thinking like physicists.

The major obstacle that people who believe they can’t sing must overcome is that belief itself.

My basic approach to understanding prodigies is the same as it is for understanding any expert performer. I ask two simple questions: What is the exact nature of the ability? and, What sorts of training made it possible? In thirty years of looking, I have never found an ability that could not be explained by answering these two questions.

While there are various ways that parents and teachers can motivate children, the motivation must ultimately be something that comes from within the child, or else it won’t endure.

put together a group of people all interested in the same thing—or join an existing group—and use the group’s camaraderie and shared goals as extra motivation in reaching your own goals.

Another key motivational factor in deliberate practice is a belief that you can succeed.

The motivation must, of course, be a desire to be better at whatever it is you are practicing. If you don’t have that desire, why are you practicing?