HOW TO TRAIN YOURSELF TO BECOME BETTER

 

BUILDING BETTER HABITS

Practice loving men training themselves to become better/ Credit/Andrea Piacquadio

Highlights

·        In the world of training, research is yet to deliver on how to practice better.

·        There are no best practices on the subject of practicing better

·        The subject is still an active research area with numerous debates.

These highlights should not scare you. You can train yourself to become better. But don’t be too hard on yourself. The concept of practicing better in the world of training is still evolving. And you are free to begin from anywhere. The goal for your training should focus on skill acquisition as opposed to speed. These are our best ways to train yourself to become better;

Ø Identify an Area of weakness

Ø Focusing on acquiring skills

Ø Choose learning over performance

Area of Weakness

In order to become better. Your training should focus on an area of weakness. Identifying and targeting one area or areas of weakness makes your training more meaningful. With an area of weakness in mind. Your training shifts from short-term to long-term. You would like to become better. And your desire to become better is not short-term. Your desire is long-term. This means that your training should also be long-term. The skills that you aim to obtain from a training should serve you long-term. The overall objective of the training is to improve you. And this means that improving on some of your weaknesses make you a better person overall. This is precisely why your training should implement long-term practices that gradually obliterate your weaknesses as time change. Training yourself with this long-term mindset sets you on a better position to achieve your desired improvement.

To improve on your weakness. Make your training deliberate. Let your training narrow down to the areas that need improvement. Let your training be orderly. Move from one practice set to the next. Focus on mustering the skills and habits in one practice set before implementing the next step. Moving in this systematic manner will ensure that your weaknesses receive the best training. And as you advance from one practice to the next. You will be improving one thing in your areas of weakness. By the time you complete the whole training. You will be better. Whatever appeared as an obstacle, will get a permanent solution. When you train with a long-term mind. You focus on the whole. You focus on a holistic improvement. This improvement will stick. And the training that you performed to make yourself better will also stick.    

When you choose quality over quantity. Improving a weakness becomes realistic. Because your whole training will target that area. Your goal will not be to accumulate hours but rather to improve. The goal will be to become better not to muster time. Time in your training yourself to become better is not what matters. Becoming better is what matters. And for you to become better. You will require something more than just time. You will invest time in getting the bad in you out. If the bad in you does not get out, time will not matter. It will not matter that you spend 90 days improving an area, which is still an obstacle. As long as, the job is not done. Time does not matter. What this means for you is to shift your mind. Don’t peg your improvement on time. Instead, focus on the improvement itself when training. Focus on the areas that need to become better.

And don’t be afraid to spend as much time as, possible on the target areas. Remember, the aim of the training is to make yourself better. If by the end of a certain period that better is missing, it would not matter how much time you spend. You will still need to train yourself again to become better. For your training to be effective. Choose quality over quantity. Quality in this context is carrying out deliberate training aimed at improving a weakness as opposed to accumulating time. When it comes to improving something or an area, don’t pay attention to time. Time is important for sure, but in the context of your improvement desire. Focus on getting the job done. Focus on becoming better. And becoming better takes time. That is why adopting a long-term mindset is the best approach to become better. Don’t rush through your training. Spend time with your training and acquire actual skills that will transform you into a better person.

An enthusiastic kid riding a bicycle. Photo/Tatiana Syrikova 

Focus On Acquiring Skills

If the goal is to train yourself to get better, then don’t rush through instructions. The instructions in your training should be consumed at lower-level pace. This means that if there are five steps to mustering one skill in the course of your training. You don’t combine the five steps. You don’t make the five steps into one. You follow each step at a time. If each step requires you to train for at least 30 minutes. You train yourself 30 minutes spread across the five steps. Your training should register 150 minutes not 30 minutes for the five steps. Moving from one step to the next will enable you to muster the skills. You will develop discipline along the way. You will learn the value of patience. You will also learn the importance of building knowledge.  By picking up your training from where it stopped the previous day.

Looking back to go forward will keep you on toes. Your training will be focused. It will have a beginning and an ending. And you will be able to trace every lesson in the training. If you were supposed to train yourself for two months or four months for example, you will be able to see the progress of all the four months. This means that in case you doubt something, you will have backup. In circumstances, where you think you need more knowledge to effectively exercise your skills. You will have material to fall back. This is the benefit of consuming instructions in stages as opposed to consuming a lot of information in one bundle of time. Your training will be more effective when you consume less as opposed to more. Less will make you learn as you go. It will also help you develop confidence in your learning process. And the more you train, the more you will become better.

Choose Learning over Performance

There is no need to rush. You are not proving a point to anyone. Becoming better is for your own good. The best way to approach your training is to learn. Learn the actual things that make you better. Interact with the materials that help you to become better. Get yourself in the learning mood. The desire to train yourself to become better is a long-term need. You don’t want to become better for just 30 days. You want that better to stick for the rest of your life. And if this training is for posterity. You will have to work hard. You will have to learn. You don’t want to look good because a competition is coming up next month. The competition is important. However, focus on the future. Think of what this training will do for you after the competition. Your body will be in good shape. Your mind will be in good space.

Excited people learning how to become better. Photo/Fauxels

Your overall, quality of life will improve. You will be a new person. A joyful person. A flexible person. Your attitude would become better. Better will be around you. And that is what your training should focus on. Making you better around the clock. Therefore, approach your training with a sustainability mindset. Train yourself for the future. Aspire to become better for the future. Of course tomorrow matters. But the future matters most. You don’t want to deal with the same weakness three years down the line. Instead, in three years’ time, you want to look back and thank yourself. For making the decision to train yourself. For putting in the work that was needed to become better. Your training should focus on progress. Moving you from one stage to the next.  In your next stage, you should not be doing activities that you were supposed to do in stage one. That is what progress looks like.

Learning is the best way to make progress. Because knowledge helps you to improve. It helps you to avoid mistakes. When you improve areas of weakness. You become better. And that means, you will never have to deal with these weaknesses again because the training took care of them. The moment you put your mind on knowledge. You will enjoy the training. The training will not look at the seconds or minutes in the clock. Instead, the training will look at your growth level. There were things that you could not do before the training. But after the training you are able to perform those activities. That is growth. You are making progress. And you are concentrating your efforts where it matters. Don’t focus on practicing better because there is no practicing better. Research is still working on that. Instead, focus on learning to become better. When you learn, you empower yourself. And that is how you become better.