Two tabs dey open. One na language course wey you don want for years, de oda one na woodworking class wey dey ten minutes from your house, and de two of dem real well well. You get de money, you don find like five hours for week, and you ready to put serious part of your life into being truly good for something.
Na only one thing dey block road: you no fit pick. And while you no dey pick, dat five hours dey waka go nowhere. Dis na better problem and e deserve procedure, no be to toss coin. To choose well no be say you go find one true calling. Na to pick de bet wey go compound pass, run small live test before you commit anything wey go pain you, den close de matter so your mind go stop to dey leak into de tab wey you no choose.
How I go pick one skill when three dey sweet me?
Write three candidates down, run each one for two weeks with de hours wey you truly get, den commit to de one wey you keep opening without begging yourself. Two weeks long enough make de new-thing excitement finish, and e short enough sey you never sink anything wey go pain you.
Three na de correct number, and reason dey. One candidate no give you anything to compare with, so you no fit sabi weda na excitement or na real fit, and you go dey wonder about de road wey you no take for full year. Five or six go turn de choosing itself into de hobby, na so dis decision dey take avoid person for ten years.
While you dey run de trials, log de wrong thing on purpose. No log enjoyment, because everything dey sweet for week one. Log weda you open am de day wey you tire, weda you dey think about am while you dey do oda thing, and how long e take you to start once you sidon. Dat three go tell you plenty pass how sweet de first session be.
Wetin dey make skill worth two years instead of two months?
Three tests, and de skill wey worth two years go pass all three: e go compound with something wey you already dey do, you fit get real feedback for am inside one month, and im core go outlast de tools wey dey now.
Compounding na de one wey people dey skip. Skill wey sidon near your current work dey pay double pass de one wey sidon by imself, because every hour wey you put inside am dey make one hour of de oda thing better, and you go dey get chance to use am without arranging anything. If na writing you dey do for money, learning how to draw diagrams dey compound. Learning guitar no dey, and dat one fine as long as you dey choose am with your eye open.
Feedback na de second test, and na im dey decide how fast hours go turn skill. If nobody fit tell you inside one month weda you dey improve, you go spend two years dey practise mistake with perfect discipline. Look for area wey get scoreboard: recording wey you fit listen back, joint wey go close or e no go close, person wey go read de page and tell you where dem begin dey bored.
De third test na durability, and number dey for am. David Deming and Kadeem Noray, wey work with US career data, find sey de economic return wey high for applied technical degrees for beginning dey drop pass half inside de first ten years of work life, because de specific technical content dey change under de people wey learn am. Dat one no be argument against learning tools. Na argument sey make you choose skill wey im core dey sidon under de tools.
How I go test skill inside two weeks without wasting de time?
Pick one small real output and ship am inside de two weeks. No be course and no be chapter of theory: one small thing wey go exist for de end and wey person else fit look.
Two minutes of playing wey you record. One stool. Ten minutes of talk with speaker wey go correct you. One page of writing about something wey you truly sabi. De output matter because e dey move you pass de part of every new skill wey dey feel like reading, and na dat reading part dey deceive people make dem think sey dem don choose well.
Keep three line log every night: minutes, wetin you do, and weda you had to talk yourself into starting. For de end of two weeks na de log go decide, no be your excitement for de last evening. And run de trials one one instead of together, because side by side comparison dey favor whichever one wey you happen get more energy for dat week.
E matter weda I get natural talent for am?
E no matter reach de domain. Meta-analysis wey Brooke Macnamara, David Hambrick and Frederick Oswald do find sey deliberate practice account for like 26 percent of de difference for performance for games, 21 percent for music and 18 percent for sports, and small pass dat for education and for professional work.
Read am as fact about domains, no be judgment on you. Where de task steady and de feedback dey come sharp sharp, hours dey turn skill for high rate, and na exactly for dose places person wey start from zero fit move fast. Where feedback dey slow and de environment dey shift, hours still count, but dem need better design and more outside eyes before dem go pay. So no choose based on talent, choose based on how fast feedback dey come.
Wetin happen if I choose wrong?
You go lose few months, no be de two years, and even less dan dat once you count wetin transfer. Most of wetin you build for de first months of any serious skill na general: how to run practice session, how to sidon with being bad for something in front of person wey sabi, how to break big thing into small thing wey you fit do on Tuesday.
De mistake wey dey cost money no be to choose wrong. Na to dey re-choose every eleven weeks. Angela Duckworth and her colleagues study wetin dey predict weda people go finish hard things, across West Point cadets, undergraduates and national spelling bee competitors, and wetin predict am na grit, wey dem define as perseverance and passion for long-term goals, and wey no follow IQ at all. Read dat one against your own decision, and de useful part na wetin e no talk. Nobody for dat research stand out because dem pick perfectly.
Wey mean sey one merely good choice wey you hold tight dey beat perfect choice wey you keep reopening. Set review date instead of escape hatch. Two years from de start, look am honestly and decide again. Between now and den de question don close, and closing am na almost everything wey you dey buy with dis whole procedure.
Talk am out loud, den stop to dey shop
Once de trials finish, make de decision expensive to reverse for de cheapest way wey dey. Talk am out loud to one person wey go dey ask you about am. Write de skill for something wey you dey see. Put de hours for calendar with de skill real name on top, no be vague block, and close de oda tabs.
Dis no be smaller life. To choose one skill na how you dey gather force, and for ten years time, de difference between truly good for one thing and just sabi small about three no be small difference, na different life entirely. De two candidates wey you no pick never die. Dem dey queue, and you go come meet dem with practice habit wey don already build, wey be better way to arrive pass how you for manage dis year sef.
So pick de one wey you keep opening, give am de hours wey you don already find, and allow am hard. To dey unsure no be de problem before. Not to allocate dem na de problem.
Sources
- Psychological Science, Deliberate practice and performance in music, games, sports, education, and professions: a meta-analysis
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Grit: perseverance and passion for long-term goals
- National Bureau of Economic Research, STEM Careers and the Changing Skill Requirements of Work