Quick tips
- Write down five things: sleep, training, food, warmup, first move.
- Keep the two wey matter, drop the rest.
- Raise the ground, and the peak go rise by itself.
Something happen well well. E no be say na luck, e really go well: your mind sharp, the timing correct, the hard part pass sotey you no even notice am, and you come out with the knowledge say you don reach your best level. Then somebody ask you wetin you do different, you come see say you no fit talk am. E just feel like weather.
Na so, but e no be weather. Days like that dey get things wey dey behind them, and those things simple pass and easy to know pass the day itself. Sleep, training, food, warmup, first move. Write down those five things while the day still fresh for your mind, continue to do am for some weeks on ordinary days too, and one pattern go show wey you fit follow on purpose. Na so the whole method be, and the real gain no be say you go repeat one good performance one time. Na say the ground go rise under every performance wey you give afta that.
How I fit repeat performance wey go well?
Write down the five things wey dey behind am while you still remember them: sleep, training, food, warmup and first move. Good day fit repeat as long as the things wey cause am dey easy to know, and them dey easier to know pass how e feel from inside.
Make e clear well well. No be "I sleep well" but seven hours thirty minutes, you enter bed before eleven. No be "I train" but you lift weight Tuesday, Wednesday na rest day. No be "I chop well" but breakfast by eight, real lunch by one. The warmup na whatever you really do for the last hour, and the first move na the exact thing wey you open with, because the first ninety seconds na dem set the tone for everything wey come after.
No write how e feel. Feelings na the result wey you dey try explain, so if you put am for the same column with the causes, na so the whole exercise go turn to just diary. Five lines, ninety seconds, for the same day.
Wetin I suppose write down, and for how long?
The same five lines for ordinary days and for big days too, for around six weeks. You need some average days and some bad ones for the record, because record wey get only your best performance no fit tell you wetin make dem best.
Six weeks na practical time, e no be science thing. E long enough make ordinary days and bad days both show for the record, and na that one make comparison possible, and e short enough make you actually finish am. Keep am for wherever no get stress: your notes app, the back of your diary, one line for spreadsheet.
Monitoring dey do real work here, e no be just record keeping. One big study wey combine 138 random experiments find out say people wey dem push make dem monitor their progress toward goal, dem get better chance to reach the goal, and the effect dey bigger when dem write the information down physically or tell somebody about am. So the log no be admin work wey you dey do around the practice. Na part of the practice itself.
How I go know which inputs really matter?
Put your best three days beside your worst three and look for the input wey dey move the same direction every time. Most time na two out of the five dey do that, and the rest na noise wey you fit drop without thinking twice.
For most people, one out of the two na sleep. When college basketball players extend their night sleep for some weeks, their sprint time and their shooting accuracy both improve, and adults generally need seven hours or more every night for the system wey dey hold attention and reaction time together. If your best days dey come after your longest nights, you don find your first lever, and e no be mystery.
The second one na usually the one wey you no go guess: how big your lunch be, whether you train the day before, whether you spend ten minutes alone before you start. Look for am for the gap, no be the average, meaning the input wey different pass between your best three and your worst three, no be the one wey your opinion strong pass. When you find am, write am down as one rule for one sentence. Two rules wey you dey really follow better pass checklist of nine wey you read one time then abandon.
Wetin I go do when good day no repeat?
Check the inputs before you rewrite the method, because two short nights and one lunch wey you skip dey explain more of the difference pass wetin most people expect. Rule wey work four times out of five na working rule, e no be broken one.
Performance no dey fixed 100%, and the log no be machine. Wetin the five lines give you na shorter list of suspects. When a day come dull and you fit see say you sleep only five hours and skip the warmup, you get explanation and fix instead of mystery and bad mood. When every input dey correct still the day go dull, that one useful too: e mean say the difference dey somewhere wey you never look, usually the room, the other people wey dey inside, or something wey you no get any say for am at all.
No add sixth input just because of one disappointing day. The log go stop to work the moment e become burden, and every extra line dey increase the chance say you go quietly stop to keep am. Give the two rules one month before you go change dem.
How I go make the two wey matter stick?
Attach each one to something wey already dey happen for fixed time, no be to your intention to do am. Repetition for stable situation na wetin dey turn decision to default, and the honest time frame for that na from weeks to months.
The number wey people dey quote na twenty one days, and na just folklore: e trace back to one surgeon observation about patients wey dey adjust to their new appearance, e no come from any study of habits. When researchers actually track daily behavior, the feeling of automatic action climb then level off after average of around sixty six days, with plenty variation between people and between behaviors. The same work find out say missing one single day no really set anybody back, and na that part worth carrying.
So no just resolve to sleep more. Put your phone for shelf when you dey brush your teeth. No just resolve to warmup. Put the ten quiet minutes immediately after you park your car, every single time, until you go notice if e miss. The trigger na him dey do the remembering, wey free you from having to remember yourself.
Expect say the first two weeks go feel like effort, and expect say that one go fade. That fading na the whole point of habit: na capacity wey you dey get back, forever, for fixed cost wey you pay once.
Rising ground na wetin dey make you continue to aim higher
Peaks dey exciting and most time dem no dey your hand. The ground no be so. To raise the ground mean say your ordinary day dey come closer to the day wey you think say exceptional, and when the ceiling move after that, e dey move from higher place. Na so hard pace dey turn to long career instead of just one good year.
Get one fast way to find out if your five inputs real, and na to give am to somebody wey get date for calendar this month, then watch wetin happen. To teach the routine na how you go learn am twice: the parts wey you no fit explain with your mouth na the parts wey you dey still guess about, and person wey dey ask you question go find dem faster pass another month of solo practice. You go get tested routine, dem go get corner, and next time wey na you go dey waka in, you go already know say e dey work under pressure.
Where Dis Info Come From
- PubMed, Whether to Monitor Goal Progress Dey Help People Reach Their Goal: Meta-analysis of Experimental Evidence
- PubMed, How Extending Sleep Dey Affect the Performance of College Basketball Players
- PubMed, How To Make Health Become Habit: the Psychology of 'Habit-Formation' and General Practice
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, How Much Sleep Dey Enough?