Being Really Good at Something Non Physical

I have getting crushed the last few days. When this happens I always think, “am I really any good at this”. That got me thinking what makes someone really good at something (non physical). Here is what I have come up with.

1)   Good self analysis

-If you don’t ever stop to think about what you are doing it is going to be nearly impossible to put yourself on the right path towards being really good.

-Bad habits are easily formed and hard to undue.

-Being honest with yourself is usually pretty hard but seems like it would be very important for good self analysis

2)   Knowledge

-Having a lot of it and having it be correct. This knowledge should include fundamentals of your field and the psychology of others in your field.

-This knowledge should be learned to the level of unconscious competence. This allows you to act automatically and frees up your brain to think about new things or multiple pieces of the puzzle. You learn things to this automatic level through experience and repetition.

-You should also have the knowledge to separate the signal from the noise- meaningful events from randomness, variance.

3)    Attention to detail

-When you think about an expert or master you might think of him as having a great sense of the grand scheme or big picture. To be great at something though you need to have a good idea of the macro and the micro, being able to dig deeper into the smaller details that others gloss over.

4)   Combining theory and practice

-Having the awareness that we do not live in a perfectly predictable or completely rational world.

5)   Continual learning

     -Without it you won’t get to the top of the hill (if you get there you won’t stay long).