Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to introduce new constraints. If you are trying
Speaker 1: to change bad habits or create new breakthroughs, a new
Speaker 1: constraint can force you to think in new ways. Today's tip,
Speaker 1: like some others this week, comes from Scott H. Young's
Speaker 1: new book, Get Better at Anything. This book shares strategies
Speaker 1: for how people actually learn and improve. In his book,
Speaker 1: Young shares the story of how Tiger Woods, already a
Speaker 1: breakthrough golf star, deliberately tried to change his golf swing.
Speaker 1: He believed his swing had some weaknesses, and so eventually
Speaker 1: he refused to use the old swing. He didn't play
Speaker 1: as well as he might have for a while, but
Speaker 1: eventually he came back. Young writes that old habits of
Speaker 1: thinking can exert a gravity on your performance. You fall
Speaker 1: back into routines even if you're trying to do something original.
Speaker 1: Young suggests that you can prevent that backsliding by changing
Speaker 1: the task constraints, so performing the skill in the old
Speaker 1: way is impossible. So, for example, if you find your
Speaker 1: fiction to be boringly autobiographical, you can decide that your
Speaker 1: next main character has to be someone so different from
Speaker 1: you that it can't possibly be you. For instance, you
Speaker 1: can write about someone who has a different gender. That
Speaker 1: is one way to get out of your own head.
Speaker 1: Or perhaps you're a tennis player looking to improve hitting
Speaker 1: a tennis shot using any undersized racket face forces you
Speaker 1: to hit balls in the center, Young rights. Or maybe
Speaker 1: a painter decides to paint without using any color, so
Speaker 1: he is forced to focus on light and shadow. I
Speaker 1: am sure you can think of various ways that a
Speaker 1: constraint can force an improvement in performance. Maybe one team
Speaker 1: member always leads your presentations and she does a great job.
Speaker 1: Challenge your team to give a major pitch while she
Speaker 1: is on vacation. If nothing else, it will force people
Speaker 1: to step up. If you normally speak with PowerPoint, try
Speaker 1: speaking without PowerPoint? How does that change how you address
Speaker 1: the audience. Changing the way you perform is challenging. Simply
Speaker 1: focusing on what you are doing wrong can lead to
Speaker 1: obsession and make it hard to function at a high level.
Speaker 1: A constraint, on the other hand, can push a performer
Speaker 1: away from their bad habits without focusing attention on them.
Speaker 1: Young rights that can allow new breakthroughs and maybe force
Speaker 1: some changes in the process. In the meantime, this is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've
Speaker 1: got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at
Speaker 1: Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a
Speaker 1: production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast Asks, or wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.