Practice Does Not Make Perfect

🤦🏼‍♂️ I wish someone had told me this sooner

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Hey friend,

I spent a lot of years thinking that if I just tried harder, things would get better for me.

But guess what?

Trying harder usually just leads to burnout, frustration, and wondering why nothing ever seems to change.

So what’s the answer?

The secret to getting better results in anything lies in the neuroscience of practice. m,

🧠 Neuroscience Nugget

Your brain doesn’t know the difference between what’s actually happening and what you’re vividly imagining. To your nervous system, rehearsal is reality.

There’s a principle in neuroscience called Hebb’s Law, often summarized like this:

Neurons that fire together wire together.

In other words, whatever you repeatedly think, imagine, or rehearse, your brain gets better at producing.

Most of us hear this and get nervous.

“If that’s true,” we think, “I should stop worrying. I should stop imagining things going wrong.”

But here’s the catch.

You can’t stop thinking.

Your default mode network is always active. When you’re not deliberately focused, your brain is still rehearsing something.

So the solution isn’t turning the system off.

It’s retraining the system to work for you instead of against you.

Because this isn’t a flaw.

It’s a feature.

Whatever you consistently run through your mind- success or failure, confidence or collapse- your brain treats it as training. And it wires you to perform that way when it counts.

(That’s exactly why I wrote the 9th and 10th commandments of Self-Brain Surgery in my new book that launches in 16 days! Make sure you pre-order to get your bonuses before February 3)

This means that the old saying is wrong: practice alone doesn’t make perfect.

Perfect practice makes perfect.

Perfect practice makes better outcomes, and your brain will respond.

✟ Faith Fact:

Thousands of years before MRI scanners, Scripture said it plainly:

“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Proverbs 23:7 (KJV)

So the real question isn’t, “Am I trying hard enough?”It’s, “What am I practicing for? For a better outcome, or more of the same?”

Because your brain listens to your thoughts and prepares you for success at what you tell it to try to produce. So make sure you’re practicing the right stuff. 

℞ This Week’s Prescription

Write down one thing you’ve been trying hard to change.

Now list three thoughts you usually think when you wonder why it hasn’t changed.

Cross them out.

Replace each one with a new thought that reflects how this situation looks when you change how you think about it.

Perfect practice makes perfect.

I’ve got so much more for you when my new book comes out next month! You’ll be a master self-brain surgeon in no time.

Hit reply and let us know how self-brain surgery is helping you make the changes you need to make.

Be sure to check out the archive of previous posts if you missed last week’s letter. And don’t forget to scroll to the bottom for your paid subscriber deep dive!

Dum spiro spero (While I breathe, I hope),

Lee

II Timothy 1:7, “For you were not given a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind.”

From the banks of the North Platte river on Moon River Ranch in Nebraska, USA

Disclaimer: This letter is for informational purposes only. It contains general information, drawn from my experience, research, and best practices. It is not health care advice, and is not intended to replace the counsel of your health care provider. Consult your provider before starting any new treatments or making changes to your health routine. This message does not constitute a doctor-patient relationship between us.

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