So how do you become a 'natural?' Like every profound lesson you've learnt in life so far, it is really simple.
My definition of a natural is someone who has appeared put the same amount of effort into a task, and seems to just do it better than someone else. 'They are just naturally good at it,' is what is often said.
Notice that I put the world appeared in italic? I did this because what appears to be true is not always true. Think of that person you once met in your life who you would call a natural. They just seem to be really good at a particular task. The thing which fascinates you is that they seem to be putting in the same effort or even less than you, and getting better results.
But how can this be? If we all start off as goo goo gaa gaa babies, how are they naturally better? Now if you just want to believe that they are, stop reading this article here. But if you are willing to embrace a new concept, look at it from a different angle, then keep on reading.
Basic psychology 101
Remember when you first learn how to ride a bike, geese it was hard. You had to think about keeping your balance, moving the handles the right way, moving the pedals. You had to be 'in' your head, instead of 'outside' your head (We'll talk about this later). This is how we learn, we have to consciously think about it.
As we practice and practice, we don't have to consciously think about everything we are doing, so the whole skill of what we are doing starts to become 'natural' to us.
'Pre-learned Skill' Natural
So if two kids were learning how to ride a bike, one wasn't good at any of the skills above and one was good at one or even two of them. Do you think that possibly the kid who wasn't good at any of the skills could look at the other kid picking it up so fast, and call him a natural?
The kid who was good at one or two of the skills could have learnt those skills from playing sport, or from anywhere really. He has just used the skill he knew and applied it in another area.
How do you become a natural?
The problem with advice given to you by people who are already good at what you want to do, is that a lot of them don't understand why they are good at it. They don't need to focus on thinking about each individual skill. If you are reading this you are probably not at this stage yet so you need to consciously think about every skill. This is the way we learn and get good, real good.
The best way to get good at anything is to focus on one thing. A laser beam is a lot more powerful than a torch, because it focuses a lot more. This is how the best coaches in the world train their athletes. They get them to practice over and over until they master one skill, then they move onto the next.
There was once a master of karate and his student. The student was a young boy who was missing his right arm, but was determined to be the best. In the first class the master taught all his students a particular move. Then came the second class and he taught all the students the next move, except for this one student. He continued to teach all the class a range of different moves except this one boy. They boy begged the master to teach him other moves, but he would not. Competition time came up and all of the students were warming up before the fight, and the young boy said to his master, 'master, how can I beat anyone when I only know one move?' The master said to the boy, 'all you need is one move, if you are the best at that move.' So the young boy went into his first fight, and by his own surprise won. The second, third and forth fights he also won until he got to the grand final. He went into the final fight and won that as well. After the fight he turned to his master and asked him how he did it? All the other students could do so many more moves than him, he still didn't understand. The master said 'My young boy, the move that I taught you could only be defended if they grabbed your left arm.'
Know the right move and be the best at it.
Nick Hansen
Performance Coach
Heart Compass Coaching
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