“I want you to record yourself doing 5 different openers for your talk, and send me the video.”
I was 22 when my first mentor, Jim Rohn, gave me the task. If you don’t know Jim, he was a giant of the speaking industry, and one of the most unique speakers you could watch.
I had just sent him a recording of one of my speeches, and after some serious tough love, he gave me the task above.
Why?
Because my goal was to become a great speaker. And the only way to do it is to…
Speak.
Now you might think…” Well, that’s obvious, Todd. If you want to get better at something, you have to do it.”
However, I’ll challenge you on that, because I’ve seen many great people do everything to get better, EXCEPT the thing they actually need to do.
This gets us to the 8th and final Principle of Sports Performance, which is Specificity.
What is the Specificity Principle?
You only get better at what you do. If you want to improve and get better at something, you need to expose yourself to the specific techniques, strategies, or practices that will improve that very thing.
If you want to improve your swimming, swim more.
If you want to improve your writing, write more.
If you want to improve your sales, sell more.
There are many actions you could justify taking to improve something. Often, they’re just distractions or very weak attempts at improvement.
For example, your friend Mickey wants to improve their swimming. Well, swimming is a cardiovascular workout… So is jogging. Now Mickey starts to think, “Hey, why don’t I cut back on my visits to the pool and jog instead? It’ll save me some time and hassle.”
Unfortunately, Mickey takes the long, slow, and possibly fruitless approach because jogging doesn’t Specifically impact swimming.
(Poor Mickey. You should forward him this email to help. 😉)
→Why is this DOING so important?←
Let’s go back to the principle, because there’s a critically important word to consider.
“…you need to expose yourself to the specific techniques, strategies, or…”
You see, you expose yourself when you start doing the actual thing. So there’s 2 parts to it:
- You do the thing → that’s the obvious one.
- You reveal your abilities to yourself → that’s the tough pill most people don’t like to swallow.
And number 2 is exactly why most people don’t ‘do the thing.’
This is why I constantly encourage you to ‘get on the field of play.’ And why I place very little value on the people who don’t ‘do the thing.’
When you master Specificity, not only do you become far more efficient with your growth. You also become more effective with your time, skills, and decision-making.
While everyone else wastes their time on the wrong thing, you’re attacking the thing you want to improve head-on.
Through this simple Principle, you build your belief in your capacity to do something. And this changes your entire approach to doing tough stuff.
- Your confidence goes up.
- Your avoidance goes down.
Kobe Bryant & Specificity
In his rookie season, Kobe Bryant shot four airballs, which led to the Lakers’ loss in the semifinals against the Utah Jazz. (He was only 18 years old.)
You’d think that he’d work on his shooting, right?
Well, let’s see…
When Kobe evaluated his performance, he noticed his shots were right on target, and they just fell short.
So, if he’d worked on his shooting, it wouldn’t have made the difference he’d wanted.
In his case, he needed to strengthen his legs so the ball made it to the basket.
“I didn’t have the legs. If you look at the shots, every shot was on line, but every shot was short. I have to get stronger. I need to train differently. The weight training program that I’m doing? I need to tailor it for an 82-game season so that when the playoffs come around, my legs are stronger, and that ball gets there.” Kobe Bryant in his book, Mamba Mentality
This is my favorite part about coaching other people to higher performance: ensuring we’re making the right strategic moves to improve.
And it’s because of the Principle of Specificity that I tell people:
“Peak performance is typically a process of subtracting, removing, and deleting. It’s not more; it’s less.”
Here Are Some Questions to Help You Apply Specificity in Your Life
- How can I achieve more by doing less in an area of my life?
- What have I been avoiding doing, but it’s the thing that will make the most direct impact on a skill, a goal, or a relationship?
- What assumption have I made about improving something, however, there’s a deficiency in another area affecting my performance? (Think back to the Kobe example above.)
I sincerely hope you found this valuable. One of my favorite compliments from students, clients, or audience members is, “You make the obvious so attractive.”
“It is the obvious which is so difficult to see most of the time. People say ‘It’s as plain as the nose on your face.’ But how much of the nose on your face can you see, unless someone holds a mirror up to you?”
― Isaac Asimov, I, Robot
Asimov is right, and precisely why mentorship and coaching have had such a dramatic effect on my life. (If you’d like to learn more about my own coaching programs, head over here.)
Specificity and the other Principles may seem obvious. However, when you understand their nuances, it might help to frame them in a more meaningful way.
And when something has more meaning, you increase the chances of using it.
Next week I’ll pull all 8 Principles together for you to wrap up this series in A Peak Life. Stay tuned for that and our next series, on the true meaning behind often misunderstood or misquoted ideas and phrases.
Be Bold. Take Action. Leave a Mark.
Todd Herman
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