The Art of Learning - Josh Waizkin
I listened to Tim Ferris’s interview with Josh Waitzkin on his podcast and there was a particular remark from Josh that alway stuck with me. Tim, who is so rational and scientific is approach to performance, was asking Josh to explain some of his routines and practices in really deep detail. After a certain point, Josh made a point that his quest for top performance, at its root, comes from a less tangible place. More of a bodily feeling that he knows he is on the right track compared to some observable and recordable observations. He felt that he was fairly good at understanding how his body felt and this was often his guide. I think he brought someone up like Roger Federer too who may have said something similar. This explanation stuck with me because it was so counter to what you typically hear from Tim Ferris’s guests who tend to be borderline robotic in their routines. Josh, acknowledged that there was something else often working beyond the consciousness that is worth a least acknowledging, and at best, highly prioritizing.
The most useful advice I’m taking away from the book is the practice of creating a trigger to get you into your best performative state. Find the things that make you feel the best, and then do those things before you want to perform well. Create this as your routine. Then as it becomes more and more of a trigger, you can shorten it so it doesn’t take as long and then you can just do a couple of those small acts that will then trigger you into the best performative state possible. What is my ultimate trigger routine?
“The only way to succeed is to acknowledge reality and funnel it, take the nerves and use them. We must be prepared for imperfection. If we rely on having no nerves, on not being thrown off by a big miss, or on the exact replication of a certain mindset, then when pressure is high enough, or when the pain is too piercing to ignore, our ideal state will shatter” 207
“Instead of running from our emotions or being swept away by their initial gusts, we should learn to sit with them, become at peace with their unique flavors, and ultimately discover deep pools of inspiration. I have found that this is a natural process. Once we build our tolerance for turbulence and are no longer upended by the swells of our emotional life, we can ride them and even pick up speed with their slopes. 211
If I have learned anything over my first twenty-nine years, it is that we cannot calculate our important contests , adventures, and great loves to the end. The only thing we can really count on is getting surprised. No matter mow much preparation we do, in the real tests of our lives, we’ll be in unfamiliar terrain…I believe the key is to have prepared in a manner that allows for inspiration, to have laid the foundation for us to create under the wildest pressures we have imagined. 262