The 90%: Heroic Public Speaking; Jack Nicklaus, mental coach; How to practice

Welcome back to The 90%!

It's blazing hot in Las Vegas, so let's consider something cool - an iceberg. Only 10% of an iceberg's mass is above water and 90% is underwater. This is due to the density of ice approximately matching the density of salt water. The staff at Altair have shown that the popular iceberg metaphor of success however, is somewhat lacking in accuracy. Yes, 90% is underwater, but the orientation is likely to be horizontal rather than vertical, as they demonstrated in this simulation. It's a cool (I just had to) reminder to always examine conventional wisdom.

Perspiration

I recently returned from Heroic Public Speaking in Lambertville, NJ. HPS believes that a transformative speech can change the way people feel, think, and act, thereby changing the world . . . and the speaker. They teach a comprehensive and integrated process that treats public speaking as a performance. With that in mind, here are a few nuggets I picked up that apply to any type of performance.

When you're training, you stink.
Nobody gets on stage and tries to do less than their best.
Under-preparing leads you to think about what you practiced and what you're trying to do at the same time. This slows you down because you're not fully present.
Don't try to be authentic. Be natural.
Trying to be "good" is self-centered. Try to be helpful.
You must make intentional choices in order to achieve specific outcomes.
It's a lot more fun to be great at something than okay at it.

Inspiration

While in New Jersey, I also visited the USGA museum. It possesses an outstanding collection of golf memorabilia, including rooms dedicated to Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, Bobby Jones, and Mickey Wright. The Nicklaus room, in particular, stood out for sharing a look into Jack's mindset. Check out these thoughts:

On visualization: "I never hit a shot, not even in practice, without having a picture of it in my mind."

On confidence: "Confidence is the most important single factor in this game, and no matter how great your natural talent, there is only one way to obtain and sustain it: work."

On stress: "The biggest tension-reliever of all in golf is confidence."

On motivation: "What has motivated me is the sheer challenge of the game itself. Of doing something as well as I possibly can for the enjoyment of that effort."

No matter what your sport or activity is, it would be wise to follow the advice this legendary performer. I think you can see how it applies in any context.

Preparation

Preparation is the theme of this edition of the newsletter. I find that many people, however, don't understand how to practice. Review your next practice plan with these suggestions:

Come to practice with a goal or intention. Mentally rehearse executing the goal before practice. Go execute the goal.
Don't practice until you get it right. Practice until you can't get it wrong.
You don't rise to the occasion in a performance. You sink to the level of your training.
If your practice is perfect, it's too easy. Practice at the challenge point (approximately 70% success rate) to accelerate learning.
Practice to learn.
Normalize mistakes and failure.
Use representative practice, aka representative learning design. The closer practice is to performance-like conditions, the better it is.
If it doesn't involve experimentation, challenge, and fun, it won't keep you engaged.
There is a time and a place for blocked, variable, and random practice. The key is to know when and how to use each one.
At the end of practice, reflect on what you did well, what could have been better, and how you're going to make it better. Use your reflection to guide your intention for the next practice.

If you found this helpful, please share it with others.

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