How often do you hear "I play guitar everyday but I don't seem to be any better." Now of course you can enter any other instrument, interest, etc. into that statement, but I'm sure you've heard it said or said it yourself. Why? Because it's probably true.
Now, what does it take to push beyond this plateau? Deliberate practice.
Recently I've been reading the book Peak by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool. In their book they discuss the concept of deliberate practice. Many of us have read or heard of this concept presented by many others. It's also known as the 10,000 hour principal. However, 10,000 hours of picking up your instrument and playing the same song isn't going to give you the ability to progress to new levels of understanding and execution. The basic concept is that you can't expect to become better at your craft, or any aspect of your life if all you do is play the game, you must constantly challenge your comfort zone.
This is a valuable lesson/concept that can bring a great deal of ease to mind. Make it a priority to put yourself right on the edge of your ability and the rewards can be great. Not only that, but the fact that this concept continues throughout your life regardless of age and ability make it even more worthwhile.
Just remember, once you have accepted the challenge to reach the next level then you must continue riding the edge of your ability, or else you will fall into a state of homeostasis.
I leave you with this quote from the book, Peak: Secrets From The New Science Of Expertise
"There is no point at which performance maxes out and additional practice does not lead to further improvement. So, yes, if you wish to become one of the best in the world in one of these highly competitive fields, you will need to put in thousands and thousands of hours of hard, focused work just to have a chance of equaling all of those others who have chosen to put in the same sort of work."
