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Deliberate practice

why am I not improving

Deliberate practice is repetition targeted specifically at what you cannot yet do, with immediate feedback. Ordinary repetition of what you already do well produces comfort and very little improvement, which is why long experience and high skill so often diverge.

What to do about it

Practise the part you are worst at, not the part that feels good.

How people say it

Nobody looks this up by its clinical name. These are the ways it actually gets said.

  • why am I not improving
  • been doing this for years and stuck
  • practice but no progress
  • how to actually get better at something
  • plateau in a skill
  • experience but not skilled

Written by Brian Spiker, who has run Spiker Carpet and Tile Care since 2013 — the receipts. More terms in the encyclopedia.

About the author

Brian Spiker has run Spiker Carpet and Tile Care since 2013 — a real service business with real customers, real Google reviews, and 13 years of work most self-help authors will never do.

He writes the way operators talk: brutal, funny, and built from work that actually has to get done. Verify everything at spikercarpetandtilecare.com.