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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is to introduce new constraints. If you are trying

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Speaker 1: to change bad habits or create new breakthroughs, a new

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Speaker 1: constraint can force you to think in new ways. Today's tip,

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Speaker 1: like some others this week, comes from Scott H. Young's

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Speaker 1: new book, Get Better at Anything. This book shares strategies

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Speaker 1: for how people actually learn and improve. In his book,

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Speaker 1: Young shares the story of how Tiger Woods, already a

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Speaker 1: breakthrough golf star, deliberately tried to change his golf swing.

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Speaker 1: He believed his swing had some weaknesses, and so eventually

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Speaker 1: he refused to use the old swing. He didn't play

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Speaker 1: as well as he might have for a while, but

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Speaker 1: eventually he came back. Young writes that old habits of

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Speaker 1: thinking can exert a gravity on your performance. You fall

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Speaker 1: back into routines even if you're trying to do something original.

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Speaker 1: Young suggests that you can prevent that backsliding by changing

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Speaker 1: the task constraints, so performing the skill in the old

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Speaker 1: way is impossible. So, for example, if you find your

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Speaker 1: fiction to be boringly autobiographical, you can decide that your

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Speaker 1: next main character has to be someone so different from

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Speaker 1: you that it can't possibly be you. For instance, you

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Speaker 1: can write about someone who has a different gender. That

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Speaker 1: is one way to get out of your own head.

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Speaker 1: Or perhaps you're a tennis player looking to improve hitting

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Speaker 1: a tennis shot using any undersized racket face forces you

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Speaker 1: to hit balls in the center, Young rights. Or maybe

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Speaker 1: a painter decides to paint without using any color, so

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Speaker 1: he is forced to focus on light and shadow. I

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Speaker 1: am sure you can think of various ways that a

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Speaker 1: constraint can force an improvement in performance. Maybe one team

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Speaker 1: member always leads your presentations and she does a great job.

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Speaker 1: Challenge your team to give a major pitch while she

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Speaker 1: is on vacation. If nothing else, it will force people

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Speaker 1: to step up. If you normally speak with PowerPoint, try

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Speaker 1: speaking without PowerPoint? How does that change how you address

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Speaker 1: the audience. Changing the way you perform is challenging. Simply

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Speaker 1: focusing on what you are doing wrong can lead to

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Speaker 1: obsession and make it hard to function at a high level.

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Speaker 1: A constraint, on the other hand, can push a performer

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Speaker 1: away from their bad habits without focusing attention on them.

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Speaker 1: Young rights that can allow new breakthroughs and maybe force

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Speaker 1: some changes in the process. In the meantime, this is Laura.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of

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Speaker 1: our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've

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Speaker 1: got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at

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Speaker 1: Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a

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Speaker 1: production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit

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Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast Asks, or wherever you listen

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Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.