On Awareness - The Talent Code / Daniel Coyle (Mon 12 Nov 2012)

Jenny - Thredbo (Wed 08 Jan 2003)
Daniel Coyle (*) writes on How to Boost Awareness (*)

Know where you are, and know where you’re supposed to be. [..]

Know where you are. - What move are you making, exactly, right now? Are you tuned into the precise knowledge of your performance as it unfolds?

Know where you’re supposed to be. - Where are you in relation to the ideal move? If you could superimpose yourself over the ideal performance, where would you match, and where would you fall short?

This advice fits with our scientific picture of skill acquisition. [..] In a word, it’s about cultivating awareness - awareness of ourselves, and of the path to our target performance.

Definitely applies to photography as well.

To improve, find ways to make mistakes - Jeff Haden (Mon 21 Mar 2011)

From How to Master Any Skill (No Talent Required) by Jeff Haden (Mon 21 Mar 2011) ..

We learn best from making mistakes. To improve, find ways to make mistakes:

• Slow down. Forcing yourself to go slower breaks habits as well, and is a perfect way to uncover adaptations that weren’t apparent at normal speed.



• Speed up. Go much faster than normal. Sure, you’ll screw up, but in the process you’ll break up old habits, adapt to new conditions, and find improvements.



• Break a complex task into component parts. Almost every task includes discreet steps. Pick one, deconstruct it, master it… then put the whole task back together. Then choose another component part.



• Measure differently. Pick a different measurement than you normally use to analyze performance. Measure speed instead of accuracy, for example, or use video or audio. (A friend taped four initial meetings with prospective customers and identified several bad habits he was unaware of. Watching yourself isn’t particularly fun, but it’s darned objective.)

Stumbled across this today (via one of my google alerts - Daniel Coyle). Makes sense to me, though it is hard to watch yourself in video's.

Peri's Boat - Technique Review - Left (Sun 12 Dec 2010)