The Power of Habit 4/5: Skill & The Progress of Growth

In this week's post I explain how the value of continuous growth has helped me to build a habit of continually learning. Growth in any endeavor is only possible when development is at the forefront of our minds, whether that be organisationally or individually. The old maxim states that if you aren't growing, you aren't moving forward! Hopefully part four of my series will help to inspire action & back in to a value of growth. It all starts with skill.

The Growth Mindset

I am allergic to complacency & mundane. With all my endless activity & relentless focus on progress, many people ask me if I am ever content. The answer is always NO! Not because I am not contented with life. I find contentment in other areas of my life, like being present with my wife & kids, or creating new memories with friends. But when it comes to progress I don't believe any of us should be content.

I have been watching the new Chris Hemsworth series on Disney +, Limitless. It is all about life longevity & the importance of building active habits into your life to help avoid frailty, & maintain functionality well in to your old age. The key message of the series is that 'you don't stop because you get old, you get old because you stop!'. How often have you seen people's health deteriorate rapidly when they remove activity from their lives? What has happened? They have replaced active forward movement for a sedentary existence. They have figuratively become complacent. Or you could say they have become too content!

This illustration is applicable to more than health & fitness, it provides a picture of what happens to any functional system, whether organisationally or individually. Without continuous growth & forward progress as a central value, I have witnessed many organisations, of whom seem content in their mundane activities, diminish & crumble; & left confused as to why people stop coming, or stop buying their products! An old friend once said to me, who ran a large successful business, & is now ironically the MP of Doncaster, 'if you aren't growing, you are dying!'

This I would argue is a universal truth. If you stop being active & stop growing muscle, eventually you will lose it entirely & become frail (~3-5% decrease of muscle mass per decade from age 30+), thus decreasing your life expectancy significantly (muscle mass is designed to protect your joints, utilises fat, & with evidence to suggest it protects against diseases also. see Peter Attia for more on this). Likewise, mentally, if you stop using your mind to solve new problems or remember new information, cognitive decline is the result. Hence why doctors are encouraging people to keep their minds active to reduce the chances of onset of Alzheimer's. Similarly, if an organisation fails to bring in new people, find new potential work opportunities, & build on the existing influence they have, what happens? They die!

Contentment with monotony also has bigger implications with the wider experience of our lives. Josh Froer, in his groundbreaking book on human memory, explained how 'monotony reduces time, while novelty unfolds it' (Moonwalking with Einstein). When each day, week, or month is the same, contented with mundane everyday activities, & a lack of interest in discovering anything new, Froer notes that days & years blend seamlessly in to one, & thus time is reduced! Conversely, when we break from the mundane & introduce novelty, new frequent experiences & shift our daily routines regularly, our 'psychological time is stretched, lengthening the perception of our lives' (Moonwalking with Einstein). Ever noticed how time seems to fly the older we get? It's because with age we tend to replace novelty with monotony, psychologically speaking. This is why growth should take precedent over contentment if living a long & fulfilled life is your goal.

Skill: The Embodiment of New Knowledge

The vehicle for growth is skill. But skill isn't possible without the development of knowledge. Skill is the embodiment of knowledge. Plato understood this principle from a psychological & metaphysical level. Plato regularly highlighted how physical skill was knowledge in action, or the application of knowledge (The Republic). To have skill to effectively complete a particular task, first requires knowledge. You only need to watch a Master Chef Professionals skills test to see this outworked.

The process of learning a new skill is one of the best ways to help you to grow. Mike Tyson once said that the best way to stay young & alert is to become a beginner! It is at the beginner stage of learning something new where you learn the most. It is where you are most engaged & obsessed. When you stop developing new skills, & become content with what you already know, this is the recipe for monotony! Its the recipe for a dull & boring existence, which is the reason for my relentless pursuit of progress.

I love the process of learning something new. If anyone knows me they will know that when I develop an interest in something novel, I become obsessed. But what they don't see is the process of how I go about learning everything worth knowing about the subject. Very quickly, with my obsessive focus, I can generate significant knowledge in that area, that not only motivates to keep learning, but enhances my horizons of what's possible. Moreover, my view of the world & my capacity to develop increases sevenfold with every new learning experience. Observers of my obsessive interests in a range of novel activities, often comment on my faddiness & scoff at my lack of contentment. I often think, yes but I am incredibly productive! & with each successive time I become skilled in yet another activity.

For the last eighteen months I have been obsessed with swimming. I watched Ross Edgely swim around the country & wondered if I too could learn to swim. I have been able to swim since I was young, growing up in the pool & diving boards. But never had I been taught how to SWIM front crawl properly. I ventured to the pool, & was immediately humbled by how poorly I could swim. After a few lengths, I was out of breath, my shoulders hurt, & snaking down the pool, I was over taken by dozens of old women. I was faced once again with the realisation that I was a beginner! Its in this phase where I come alive!

I realised that this sport was more than just getting in the pool & swimming. I needed to learn the technique! But in order to learn it I first needed some knowledge. With that, it set me on a trajectory that would lead me to read countless number of articles, from aerobic thresholds, the cardiovascular system, & proper technique. I watched countless videos that demonstrated each unique part of the stroke, that I would practice in isolation in the pool. Moreover, I recognised my body wasn't strong enough to build the stamina, which set me on a process to build a strength programme in to my routine (further increasing my knowledge).

Before long, the intense knowledge I was quickly learning started to translate in my swimming. I had started to develop a new skill. Today, (although I am currently injured with a burst ear drum) I am no longer a beginner, but a relatively good swimmer. I have good technique & have the stamina to swim without getting tired, aiming to swim around 5km a week. However, more importantly, I have been able to help some of my friends get into, & improve their own swimming. I have transferred my knowledge, & developed a skill that will always be in my arsenal!

Summary

This is a great illustration of how a value of growth, & a habit of continuous learning continues to move me forward. I am relentless about progress & allergic to the mundane! In the same way when we too focus on growth to break out from complacency, It has the power to have powerful implications on our lives. With the development of new skills we introduce novelty, which in turn contributes to a 'perceived psychologically lengthened', & fulfilled life. Likewise, when you become content with what you already know, & close yourself off from learning new experiences, the monotony reduces our time in our short lives. Time quickly speeds by in the blink of an eye!

Instead, how about keeping yourself young & alert by becoming a beginner again? You're never too old to become a beginner! When was the last time you learned a new skill? When was the last time you committed the time to learning something novel that interested you? Why not allow your interests to direct you to develop some new skills of your own? Remember that with each time you learn something new, you add something else to your arsenal, & broaden your horizons. Your view of the world becomes bigger! When it comes to growth & progress, the conversation of contentment should never come up! If you aren't growing, you simply aren't moving forward!

Much love,

Ross