Let me first ask you a concrete question. What are we talking about when we talk about deliberate practice? So today, I have summarized the six elements of deliberate practice from 6 angles to help parents and friends better guide their children to practice deliberately, hoping t

text丨Zhang Hua

Youth Business School Founder and CEO O

Speaking of the word "deliberate practice", I think everyone is familiar with it. Let me ask you a concrete question first. What are we talking about when we talk about deliberate practice? Can you briefly describe in one sentence what you think is the core of deliberate practice? Or what is the essence?

I want to say, "deliberate practice" is a fixed term that is popular internationally. If this term is explained in Chinese terms, I think it is: takes a short step and can reach a thousand miles. But everyone has a different understanding of this sentence.

So today, I have summarized the 6 major elements of deliberate practice of from 6 angles. helps parents and friends better guide their children to practice deliberately, hoping to give you a little inspiration.

"Deliberate practice" and "Fehmann learning method" have basically been heard of the two concepts, but they are greatly reduced when they are done, and even go in the opposite direction. So in terms of children's learning and growth, instead of rushing to find a way, we might as well return to the root directory and think about the essence of the problem.

01

Upward mind: Self-efficacy

Simply put, self-efficacy is, if you believe that you can, you are very likely to be able; if you believe that you can succeed, you are very likely to succeed. If you deny yourself and believe that you cannot, it is basically not possible. This is psychological self-efficacy.

Why should “upward mind: self-efficacy” be placed in the first element of deliberate practice? Because if you think about it, although you have to make a thousand miles apart, most people don’t think they can go further and reach a thousand miles apart. So, in my opinion, deliberate practice itself is a child's inner small universe that can be detonated, can fully believe in himself, and a heart that firmly believes that taking steps to a thousand miles is the most important.

If there is no self-efficacy and no such confidence from the inside out, the child's repetitive exercises every day may be to complete the homework assigned by teachers and parents, or so-called confined repetitive exercises.

So I think a thing must know its engine. In other words, self-efficacy is a CPU that is deliberately practiced. If a computer does not have a CPU, does not have a central processor, and does not have an engine that can glow and heat, no matter how much exercises you do, it is just a physical exercise, and it is also a repetitive and inefficient exercise.

Then why use "upward heart"? I think I have been a self-study expert since I was a child. In the 8 years after graduation, I worked as a reporter in , Southern weekends. Others are industry journalists, while I am a character journalist. The interviews and surveys are entrepreneurs, and each of them has different industries. If I want to do this report well, the only thing I have to pay is vertical depth and horizontal links, so I can learn to check the information by myself and ask others for advice.

In the past, I often told you how to let your children learn to learn by themselves? Regarding self-study, I myself have books on related methods and concepts on the market. Two of them are called "Self-study Collection" and "My Self-study History". "Self-Study Collection" was written by a Japanese master of learning, while the author of "My Little History of Self-Study" was written by Liang Shuming , a master of the Republic of China.

You may have heard of a book called "Will this world be good?" 》, this is the oral statement made by Mr. Liang Shuming in his later years.

We often say that self-study is. Many people understand self-study as preview, review, and scientific learning methods. Are these things important? important. But if a person wants to go further in self-study and become a master of self-study, then I think we must first understand the fundamentals of self-study, and also understand the fundamentals of deliberate practice we are talking about today. If you want to practice deliberately to continue, you must have an internal driving force.

And how did Liang Shuming understand self-study? He said:

"The so-called self-study should be the upward self-reliance of a person's entire life, which is important in having self-consciousness in life. Just seeking knowledge is not enough to do one's own learning. In the whole life's upward self-reliance, it can include seeking knowledge, and seeking knowledge can be used to develop our wisdom and insights; it is not a purpose. With wisdom and insights, it is the effect of life's upward self-reliance, and it is good at learning."

The "learning" is obviously self-study, and at the same time, this "learning" is obviously about everything that is done by people and things, and not just seeking some knowledge.

I think this passage is very powerful, you can write it down.

I want to say that in deliberate practice, you hope that your child can accumulate small steps and even thousands of miles. Then one thing you must do or often do is to encourage your child, write an encouragement diary for your child, let your child believe that he can, let him feel that he has become more energetic every day, and let him have a little more confidence in himself. This is a very important point in which deliberate practice can go further.

What I said before may sound a bit like chicken soup, but I think if you think about this principle carefully, we are looking for too many courses for children to guide learning methods, skills, and skills today, but how to make children self-efficacy and let children learn to learn to learn by themselves. This self-study is really from the inside out, exuding the cognition of self-indulgence and then to be a person and work, and this kind of upward mind that is gradually becoming more and more transparent. This is quite difficult, but for parents, this difficult thing can actually be accomplished by a simple and deliberate practice, which is to encourage children.

During the Spring Festival in 2022, someone asked me, is there any way to improve the parent-child relationship, make my children more confident, and make my children's academic performance continue to improve? Is there a simplest, effective, economical and practical way to not even cost money? I said yes. Many precious things in this world are free or priceless, such as love.

So there must be a way to answer these questions from parents and friends. So what is the final answer? encourages diary. describes a paragraph every day for a remarkable behavior of a child, and then adds a word of encouragement.

I hope that children can do deliberate practice, accumulate small steps and even reach a thousand miles. Encourage diaries to achieve this effect, or let children go further and further on the road of deliberate practice.

Then how to write an encouragement diary? Let me show you these pictures. You can write a short passage every day, and it doesn’t matter 100 words, 200 words, or 300 words. If you are a young child, you can read it to him, but don’t show it to him deliberately.

Encouragement diary written by students' parents

Encouragement diary can actually be said to be a traditional Chinese letter to home. When a child is in high school or college, you write a letter to him a month. Although you may not meet or meet less frequently, you can also roughly understand his status from the letter, know what he is paying attention to recently, and what is the confusion of this age group.

So, encouragement diary is a mini version of home letters. Letters from home are worth ten thousand gold. Today, many parents are caught in conflicts with their children, and their children’s low self-efficacy may not come from stupidity, but from the family atmosphere. If a child is not confident, his parents can always see many of his shortcomings, but they do not see his little progress every day. This is the first element.

We should not start making plans just by practicing deliberately, such as practicing piano for half an hour every day, writing articles every day, reading original English novels for 1 hour a day, etc. Although these behaviors are important, they have to go further and start from the root directory.

02

Clear and specific small goals

In one sentence description is that it is of course valuable to do something repeatedly every day, but repeating things without small goals may be a kind of self-consuming. So, what does a clear and specific small goal mean? The small goal we are talking about is a small quantitative indicator.

For example, for example, our boss, didn’t he play golf? There is an golf driving range next to our house. In 2021, our whole family took advantage of the "family board" in the book. Everyone had a plan to set goals in the first half of the year, and the boss's plan was to achieve a goal-setting score of less than 90 through deliberate practice.

. Most parents and friends usually make such plans for their children, such as playing golf every day and practicing for an hour. This is indeed a plan, but it also needs to add a specific goal. For example, after half a year of deliberate practice, your golf 18 holes can be within 90 strokes, or within 100 strokes. This number can be determined by each child's situation, and here is an example of this.

The second example is that children have to memorize words and read English every day, and read English for half an hour every day, which is of course valuable. But more importantly, there are small goals that are clear and concrete. For example, through one month of learning words and English news, you can read 1,000-word English articles more fluently, or through one month of oral practice, you can have basic oral communication with foreigners. Therefore, it is very important to have a clear and specific small goal.

If you don’t have this small goal and just focus on the daily exercise itself, it is actually very boring and may also be inefficient. For example, if a child practices for half an hour today and half an hour tomorrow, how do you verify that this half an hour is effective? I also asked you a question, what do you think is deliberate practice? I remember a friend in the live broadcast room said: Daily improvement with goals.

Because the sentence "Accumulating small steps leads to a thousand miles" is too abstract, it is better to replace it with "Daily diligence with goals". Daily diligence is important, but daily diligence without goals is repeated practice. Repeating exercises are not the core of deliberate practice, they are just repetitions for repetition. Not only are they not deliberate practices, but they may also destroy the plan you originally hoped your child will go further in this direction.

Do parents and friends, please think about it, your child must do deliberate practice on 1-2 things. For example, exercise, reading, writing, and even some other hobbies, all of which are deliberately practiced. Then if a child can turn these into 1-2 good habits, it can affect him and benefit him for life.

Some time ago, I shared a book with you called "Super Learner" (click to view), which talks about a concept called "direct learning". In fact, "Daily diligence with goals" means direct learning. What's the meaning?

Let me first talk about indirect learning. For example, how did our generation learn English when they were young? I only started to learn 26 English letters in the first year of junior high school, and then went to words, phrases, and then had situational dialogues.

Teacher tells us that only from letters to words to sentences, and only when you are well prepared for listening, speaking, reading and writing, can you be able to work together to communicate with others, or to be basic applications. In fact, this learning method is wrong. Not only is it not a scientific learning method, but it cannot even be called indirect learning.

And "direct learning" is actually setting the goal directly. Although you have just learned English, please tell me what is the purpose of learning English? The purpose of learning English is actually to let children understand different languages ​​and thinking and see a bigger world.

Although you are a novice in English and start from scratch, can you achieve basic communication with foreigners within half a year? Although this sounds a bit difficult, it is enough to get it.

We formulate a daily diligent learning plan around this goal, which is called direct learning.Clarify what your stage goals are, and then directly focus on the results and reverse your study plan. This can be said to be deliberate practice or direct learning.

"Deliberate practice" and "Fehmann learning method" are things that both Chinese parents and children should do, but they are all done with great discounts. So when I talk about these two points, I want to talk more. What is the essence of Feynman's learning method? The essence is explanation, which means explaining complex things simply, and output is just a form.

Similarly, daily diligence with goals is the essence of deliberate practice. The daily exercise itself is just a form, so do you think the essence, goal, or form is more important? You must know that the goal is more important.

If many people think that the essence of Feynman's learning method is output, then many children will become memory experts and memorize everything. This is not the case. I think that being able to explain complex things simply is the real Feynman learning method and the real Feynman master.

So the same is true for "deliberate practice". 's goal-based diligence will make children learn easier, their efficiency will become higher and higher, and their self-efficacy will become higher and higher.

03

Focus on the things in front of you

Many people know that if you deliberately practice, you must focus on one thing, and you must accumulate small steps and even a thousand miles, then you must focus. But the problem is that there are some things that are repeated for a long time, which is really boring. How can you focus on practicing the repetitive process and make progress every day? Then we need to re-understand focus. There are two sentences that everyone must remember:

1. Focus is not sitting there motionless for two hours, but regaining it in time after being distracted.

2. Mix and match two related things.

For example, children have the habit of reading. You hope that children can read for half an hour every day through deliberate practice and goal-oriented daily diligence, so as to achieve the interdisciplinary thinking of children in half a year, or to form their own knowledge system. Although it is not very concrete, this is barely a small goal.

So, do you have to sit in the same place for half an hour of reading every day, or do you have to stop the half hour at all? Not necessarily, if he could use fragmented time to achieve the amount of reading produced in half an hour every day, or complete the basic behavior of reading, that would be fine.

Of course, this time cannot be too broken, and you cannot turn 30 minutes into 5 6 minutes a day, which is really too broken. I mean, you can split the kids into 2 15 minutes, or 3 10 minutes. As long as he can maintain immersive reading in that 10-minute heat, that's fine.

He may not necessarily have to be in the study or sit there. He can stand or follow you to the supermarket to buy things when he is bored, bring a book to read. This is how our child is. I didn't interrupt him in those 15 minutes, and finally took him away after paying the bill.

So, focusing does not mean that children must practice piano in the study at home, or they cannot be distracted at all when they are outdoors, but that they can easily get calm when they are distracted.

Let me give you an example, which means that you hope your child will do a few questions about logical thinking every day. On the one hand, you think it can improve your child's mathematical thinking, and on the other hand, you hope that your child will make progress in logical thinking every day. But in this aspect, logical thinking is not only improved by practicing questions or reading some Olympiad materials. When a child plays some classic games, he can actually improve his logical thinking.

When a child is practicing deliberately, you want him to do math problems half an hour every day, but if he turns this half an hour into one hour, in this one hour, he can play a half-hour logic reasoning game or do Olympiad math problems.

What I want to say is that deliberate practice is relatively boring, so don’t let your child stay there and don’t let your child focus on only one thing.Finding something related to this thing can make deliberate practice less boring.

For example, reading, sometimes I read a big book, which may be a bit academic, so I often read another lighter book. If I can't read this book anymore, I will flip through another book and come back. It's best if these two books have a certain relationship.

For example, Liang Shuming's oral statement mentioned above, "Will this world be good?" 》, this is a very profound book. At this time, there was another book on my desk called "Hello, Dear World". The first book is "Will this world be good?" 》, this is an insight into the current situation of Chinese society, while the other book is about a little boy who came back from a trip to Australia and wanted to write a letter of thanks to those who helped him there. His mother said that in fact, anyone in the world can write to anyone you want.

Later, from the age of 6 to the age of 13, he wrote letters to scientists from countries around the world, including Antarctic and Arctic scientific research stations, and a Chinese teacher. Then, he received more than 1,000 reply letters and finally made a book called "Hello, Dear World". You won’t be tired if you read the two books

. Did you say I deliberately practice reading and achieve the results? Of course, it not only achieves the effect, but also makes me feel that reading is a pleasure.

04

Ambient: Companion or coach

What does this mean? It is quite boring to practice deliberately, although it is a daily improvement with goals. We must re-understand the focus, and let the things that children focus on and related interesting things be mixed together, so that they can last longer and go further. But sometimes it’s still a bit boring, what should I do? At this time, companions and coaches are very important.

A child over 10 years old sometimes gets more useful than his parents' nagging. Therefore, every child should have five role models: parent role models, peer role models, social role models, and celebrity role models. In fact, we still have to do role models for children over 10 years old, but they may not necessarily like to listen to them, and their companions will have a greater impact on them.

So in deliberate practice, if you can help your child find a companion or coach, it may not be twice the result with half the effort, but at least in this process, the child's inner state and self-efficacy can last longer and farther. Before

, I specifically talked about a live broadcast, the theme was "How to guide children to hold family reading clubs or peer reading clubs?" Because we say that the reading club is a carrier, in the reading club, you can check out the biography or documentary of c Ronaldo or Messi and , and then we will talk about football together. The reading club is not actually reading for the sake of reading. It uses a carrier to allow everyone to explore the inner world or the outer world together, so that children can feel broader inside.

So I told you about the live broadcast that day that the core of the family and peer reading club is really not a book. is through this organizational form, so that children are willing to express their thoughts in their hearts and discover the vastness of the world in such an atmosphere.

Then the coach may not be the coach of the club and interest class. Among the five role models I mentioned above, there are two role models that can be used as children's coaches, namely social role models and parent role models, which are all empowering and guiding children.

Parent role models should all know what it means, and the social role models mean, for example, children especially like to study robot models and some electronic components, etc., and they are willing to study some things in science and engineering.

At this time, you may enroll him in an interest class, but maybe in this society, one of your good friends is an engineer. This engineer friend may meet your child four times a year, and meet once every three months on average.Then chat and drink tea together. Your child can ask him what work do you do every day? What kind of child was you when you were a child? Just like career enlightenment, let children know what kind of self-confidence and abilities they have since childhood, so that they can go further in the direction you are practicing in the future. At the same time, it also allows children to understand what the value of deliberate practice today is from the perspective of the adult world. This is also a coach.

Children do deliberate practice in a certain direction. If you can find a peer in this direction, or a paid club or interest class coach, or a person in society who can enlighten him in professional terms, meet once a month or three months, then it will be effective for children to go further and go twice as hard as half the effort when they deliberately practice.

Many parents and friends say that it is too difficult for parents to make money and accompany their children. Yes, but in the live broadcast room, I have also shared many methods with you, from encouraging diaries to family boards to energy lists, I have given many parents and friends the simplest but most effective way to stimulate their children's self-motivation and confidence.

What is an energy list? The energy list is when the child comes home from school, and there is a big white paper posted at the door, writing a sentence or something to describe a small thing that you can control or break through in school today. If that piece of paper is big, you can change one a month, and if the piece is small, you can change one a week. It's very simple, you don't need to be a high-education, or you don't need to be a full-time parent.

05

Feedback is crucial

"Feedback is crucial" As the name suggests, deliberate practice if you do not have feedback, you don't know how far you have gone, nor how high your level is.

Although we say we should seek progress rather than show our talents and not compare ourselves with others, I always have to know that my efforts are really improving. How to do it? Be sure to give feedback. Regarding feedback, I will give you 3 ways :

1, encourage diary and energy list feedback.

can encourage children's behavior itself, which is feedback itself. This feedback actually corresponds to the first element of our 6 elements, improving its self-efficacy.

2. Guide the child to give feedback on the review.

every week or every day, make a review of the time you spend on this matter, your personal feelings, etc.

3. Feedback to children.

This is actually a kind of feedback. If a child can continue to do a practice and make daily progress with goals, he should really give him a reward.

06

Clear motivation and courage to break through

"Clear motivation" is actually to go back to the root directory. Why practice? We just said that we should set goals and make daily progress. This goal may be a quantitative indicator. So we should clarify our goals and know what we are doing today for.

What is the purpose of practicing piano, reading, exercising and playing basketball? It is to become a deep enthusiast in a certain field in 10 years, be able to benefit yourself and be a person who helps others, so that you can live more clearly.

So you should know that when the child really can't hold on or is very hard-working, you should leave blank space for the child, go downstairs for a walk, go hiking together, and tell him that the mother actually believes that the purpose of practicing the piano is not to practice the piano well, but to let you feel the beauty of music.

So, if you have been troubled recently, you can stop a little, take your child to watch some musicians' biographical movies, take your child to listen to a concert, and talk to your child about something. Sometimes, art is of great use only when useless, which may give us inner comfort and strength. This is the value of art. After leaving blank space, I think it may make the child know more clearly why he set out and practice deliberately. This is a matter of motivation.

Another situation is "being brave to break through". What I said earlier is actually a breakthrough. If you can never forget it, there will be a resounding response, clarify your motivation, and then continue to practice. But, what is another breakthrough? That is to jump out of your comfort zone.

Many children like music and art and go to the art exhibition. You let them practice for half an hour every day, and they enjoy it quite, right? Although he may also have a small goal of daily improvement, in fact, his so-called long-term enjoyment will make him fall into his comfort zone.

He doesn't want or parents don't know how to break through, such as challenging other instruments, communicating with a powerful person, or participating in a chorus ensemble event of orchestral . The teacher treats him as a role model every day, and parents are very happy when they see their children practicing the piano every day. But his behavior is actually a phenomenon that goes against deliberate practice, or that he has not really improved in deliberate practice.

At this time, there is a saying: jump out of the comfort zone and enter the courage zone. I think the outside of the comfort zone is the courage zone. It is not about causing trouble for yourself, but a real deliberate practitioner of . It is about breaking out of the comfort zone, having the courage to challenge, and breaking through yourself. He is a self-study expert and a person who keeps climbing and climbing one mountain after another. Therefore, this "brave breakthrough" also echoes the first element of our 6 elements, "Uptimate Heart: Self-efficacy ".

or above are the essence and 6 elements of deliberate practice I mentioned. I wonder if it will inspire you?

Last time I told you about deliberate practice was in March. After 8 months, I think deliberate practice of these things is common sense for me, but I have seen many parents and friends fall into gaps in guiding their children, and there are some misunderstandings in understanding. Therefore, I will share with you the part that deliberately practices relatively refined, hoping that it will be helpful to you.