DELIBERATE PRACTICE

I have been reading through Quiet by Susan Caine again (watch her TED talk here), trying to glean teaching points for introverts such as myself in the context of our extroverted world. I found it interesting to realize that my background in the evangelical church was an extreme in this respect. Working in the academic emergency department seems similarly biased for extraverts.

The argument she makes is that most advances come from the introverted practice of reflection and deliberate practice. It was strange to realize that some of my losses in my personality over time have been the very strengths my introverted self used to have while I was a student. Alone time with deliberate practice is exactly what my life lacks. I spend so much time in busyness, I feel like a hamster on a wheel or a rat in a race. What time I have alone, I feel the weight of being alone and tend to spend my off time in diversion or daily duties of laundry, cooking, dishes, yard work and housework. But I have stopped enjoying this alone time, and I really do find a need to be alone with my thoughts, even if that makes me feel antisocial. I notice it most after putting Princess Pirate to bed late. I find myself going to bed too late, because I crave time to myself, often looking to my blog and journal to write my thoughts.

I have also been obsessively watching the Canadian ice dancing pair, Tessa and Scott, since missing the bulk of the Olympics, but seeing their Roxanne program near the end. Since learning their comeback was most recently orchestrated with a move to Montreal, I was inspired by their story of training 13 hours a day, recovering from multiple surgeries (Tessa with compartment syndrome), and the transformation from an idea to a perfected performance. They are uncomfortably adorably conflicted and devoted all at once. Perfectly in sync on ice but never in any public appearance. Still, they are in the best shape of their lives, achieved what most of us could ever dream possible, and seem to have the dearest connection a person can hope for in life. They put in hours no one else would to achieve it, and they were amazing. They also seem quite introverted, but make an effort to share themselves with others (their TED talk).

Even today, with my daughter's bookclub book being chosen this month, and hours in a clinic waiting our turn, I was entertained and entranced by the idea of Phileas Fogg's orderly schedule and house. I don't live like that. Time stresses me. I rarely feel I have enough. But his confidence and efficiency with time, and his complete lack of need to socialize helping this lifestyle is both quirky and motivating.

Lastly, I have been inspired by some greats: the daily goals of Ben Franklin, Eisenhower's matrix, and the Ivy Lee Method are some examples of how to prioritize and keep the busy from preventing the important deliberate practice that is necessary for a valuable life (see self-actualization in Maslow's Heirarchy of Need).

So read, think, walk, talk, consolidate, organize, synthesize, and write. Take time to be alone, but don't waste it. It's precious stuff, and sometimes it is not given in large quantity. Sometimes it needs to carved into the schedule. It helps to live far from family, with fewer liaisons. But it is possible whatever your life circumstances are.