Taking the Stair Step Approach to Success
While we live in a society that demands everything immediately, and as a culture we lack delayed gratification, it is important to have a plan for how we can successfully develop new habits. If you are an athlete, coach, or team member working with me, then you are used to the check-ins to see how past skills are being internalized before we begin to build upon them. I am checking for three things:
Consistency - Have you been consistent at applying the new skill? In the beginning, it needs to be a conscious effort, just like any skill in sport, to make new habits form. Sometimes, a post-it note on a door, a reminder set on a phone, or an accountability partner can help to make sure you are being consistent at applying the new skill. Another piece relating to consistency is how you get back on track after letting it slip.
Ownership - Are you taking ownership of this new skill? How you learn it isn’t always what is best for everyone. As you begin to master things, you put your own spin on them using the principles from the skill and applying them to your own individual environment. I want to see that you have modified the skill to fit best into your daily routine and life.
Internalization - Has this skill been owned by your mind and body and become part of who you are? This is a step beyond ownership, where you are not using muscle memory to form the task. Ownership is designing it to fit your life and situation, internalization is the skill of becoming part of you to the point of muscle memory.
When I see these three things come together, we can start adding on the next skill to be developed. Using the step approach allows you to truly focus on understanding, owning, and mastering the skill or task. It allows you to put your total focus on it rather than trying to juggle multiple new skills at once. In the image above we demonstrate this by looking at sleep hygiene steps.
We start small with setting a daily alarm to wake up at the same time every day; it is as simple as that. Once you are consistent at waking up at the same time, we can then set the bedtime to be more consistent. A consistent sleep and wake time has been shown to have a number of amazing benefits on sleep quality, depth, and on mental health. Once we have the bracket of time set, we can start focusing on things that influence the quality of sleep, whether it be phone use, phone location, activities before bed, diet, etc. The point is that we are taking small steps towards a big goal of developing better sleep hygiene.
You can use this method in any area of sports and life, and you don’t just need to focus on one skill overall at a time. For example, in baseball, you might be working on your stance for each pitch, but also have one fielding skill that you are working on as well. The point is that we are not working on four new batting tasks and 4 new fielding tasks at the same time.
While this method might take more time to learn a broad range of skills, it will ensure that your skills are internalized and you are able to apply those skills to a greater range of situations because you have a greater depth of understanding and development. Most importantly, remember to enjoy it. Little by little, a little becomes a lot.
~ Dr. Ty