Train Yourself the Way You Would Train Your Dog
What mindset governs the way you work toward your goals? I have two analogies to help you think that through: dancing flamenco and training a puppy.
Let me start with a story. I knew someone in college who studied flamenco. Flamenco is a gorgeous, amazing dance. She once told me that in flamenco, there is never practice. There is only performance. Her teacher told her to always, when practicing, imagine that she was performing.
I think that way of thinking could be applicable to so much else.
To see the entire broadcast including links to two brief flamenco demonstrations, click here. You can also play the embedded video below, but the flamenco performances are clipped out for copyright reasons.
Flamenco Requires a Performance Mindset
Just think about this dance. Is it even possible just to practice, or do you have to get into the thought that you are in a performance like the two clips?
With a dance like this, you don’t just sort of do it. You get into it.
Why am I showing you flamenco dancing in a series on how to do better in business and in life? The idea of practicing as if you were performing can be useful in many contexts.
Who is getting trained, you or your dog?
I have an amazing neighbor whose teenage daughter trains dogs. She’s really good at it. She and her mother were having a dinner discussion with a potential client with a little puppy. They took the puppy for a walk, and the puppy was always pulling them one way and then pulling them another way. The teenage girl said to the potential client, “If you are going for a walk and your puppy is pulling you, that is training. Your puppy is training you to let it pull, and you are training your puppy that it’s okay to pull. So you have two options. Either you can go for a walk and enjoy the fresh air by yourself, or you can go out with your puppy on a training walk, where you’re doing the training.”
This was a new way for me to look at it. I might have thought, “Here I am behind the puppy. This is fine. It’s okay. I’ll train the puppy later because I just want to get some fresh air.” Or I could realize, “Hey, hold on. I am going for a walk. The puppy is taking in everything I’m doing. The goal with the puppy is to train it to walk by my side, not to pull ahead. If I want it to walk by my side, I need to show it all the time what it needs to do.”
Getting Better at Whatever We Want to Do
Whether we want to be better managers or we want stronger exercise programs, there’s an idea of constantly challenging ourselves, getting right to the edge of our comfort zones. That’s been shown over time to have strong results.
How does this idea apply in management? When trying to be the best at your work or managing a team of people, how could you use this idea of always being in performance mode? Here’s one way. You could focus on making sure that your conversations are truly inclusive. Look around the room. Are all involved? Maybe you decide in every single meeting to find a way to include everyone’s opinion. Maybe that doesn’t mean you necessarily ask during a short meeting. In that case you could ask later. That requires you to focus your attention in a way that is more like a performance than a practice.
Let’s go with exercise. We all have times where we’re amazing at exercise and other times when we’re not so great. When exercising, are you doing halfhearted jumping jacks and half-hearted pushups? Is that really what you want to be doing? I’ve done half-hearted planks, but I have also done incredible planks where I feel amazing and I know I’m focused on it. To use this idea for exercise, you could try to always exercise at the performance level. That might mean doing it for a shorter amount of time so that you have the energy to be more psyched up, enthusiastic, and alive in the actions you take.
Cello Demonstration
We have come to the part of the program that is most nerve wracking for me, but my own way of showing what we’re talking about today, practicing as if I were performing. I’ve been taking cello lessons for just over two months. This will be one line of a song played as if I were thinking of it as practice and another as if I were performing.
The song is called Long, Long Ago.
When I’m practicing, I’m paying attention to getting to the right notes, hopping ahead to where I need to be. I’m making “my lines are on,” which means that my fingers are in the right places. I perhaps rushed through a little to make sure my lines are on.
[One line played as if in practice]
Now to play as if I were performing. Even as I said that, I immediately sat up even more in my seat with the cello, which you always need to do. I immediately lifted my wrist up, which you’re also supposed to do. There’s a different mindset with a performance.
[One line played as if in performance]
Except for the last squeak, that was excellent, or at least as excellent as I can do with my initial cello work.
I invite you to think about how you can move toward your goals by using a performance rather than practice mindset.
Photo by Jackq on Dreamstime
*******************************************************************
WHO ARE WE? We are a coaching organization. Our clients include premier technology companies including VMware, Logitech, ServiceNow, Sony PlayStation, and parts of the AirForce.
WHAT? In April 2020, we started offering FREE DAILY 20-minute webinars at 11:00 AM PT with experts on working remotely during this coronavirus time.
WHY? As members of Silicon Valley Change, we have all been asking, “How can we help in this stressful time?” This series is our answer. The sessions are 20 minutes long because we know how strapped you are for time. There are no hidden bells and whistles, and we make zero pitches about any of our services including coaching.
To participate live each weekday at 11 am PT, use any of the following links:
Recordings can be found on the MyCoach Work Remote Strategies page.
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.