I’ve been rereading recently Tim Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Chef. I am not particularly interested in cooking but I am interested in the ideas of Meta Learning. I am putting together my plan for learning German (I know I was in Germany last month and should have done it 6 months ago) and also I am putting together a plan for Mastering Lawn Bowls.
I am not a bad lawn bowler. I won the Minor Championship at my Club last year. This has spurred me on to even loftier ideals but, being an early member of Gen Y, I want it all now. Hence the idea of skill mastery espoused by Tim Ferriss is appealing to me. I add “Is Tim Ferriss full of crap?” not out of any urge to prove him wrong in my own circumstances but it amuses me that in a book where he tells you how to do things he also tells you that part of success can be doing the opposite of what you are supposed to do. So why should I be listening to Tim? Well I suppose it comes down to what Tim espoused in this paragraph:
“There was clearly explicit expertise (what they told me to do) and implicit expertise (what they did under pressure that they weren’t aware of or couldn’t verbalise.)
In his book Tim has his explicit advice and it’s up to me to work out what his implicit advice is (what I need to add from Tim’s teachings to my own routine for Lawn Bowls Domination.
So, without further ado, here are the steps I will follow to achieve my goals of Lawn Bowls domination. I will be following Tim’s program of DS3 (Deconstruction, Selection, Sequencing and Stakes.)
Deconstruction
When talking about Deconstruction, Tim Ferriss is asking us to define “What are the minimal learnable units, the LEGO blocks, I should be starting with?” For Lawn Bowls Domination, I’ve broken it down into the following:
- Pre Shot Routine
- Shot Selection
- Delivery
- Common faults to identify and avoid
Now obviously each of these can be expanded further and gone into in more details – especially shot selection. Shot selection includes whether you go forehand or backhand and the shot you choose (draw shot or weighted drive etc). It also will depend on the bowls in the head from your opponent. Also there is some cross over between delivery and faults identified.
Selection
When talking about Selection, Tim Ferriss is asking us to define “which 20% of the blocks should I focus on for 80% or more of the outcome that I want?”
I am a big believer in the Pareto Principle – the 80/20 rule. From working out all the things that could boost my game I’ve broken it down to the following items to dramatically increase my results.
- Holding the bowl correctly
- Identifying and removing common faults from delivery
- Improving my draw shot.
Improving this 20% of my game will lead to an overall 80% improvement in my results.
Sequencing
When talking about Sequencing, Tim Ferriss is asking us to define “in what order should I learn the blocks?”
In ordering the building blocks for Lawn Bowls Domination, I would have to follow the order mentioned above:
- Holding the bowl correctly
- Identifying and removing common faults from delivery
- Improving my draw shot.
But it does involve a visualisation process.
On watching a number of widely available videos on Youtube, it would appear that implicitly people start with visualisation first. Successful bowlers visualise where there bowl is going to end up and path that it needs to travel down to get there.
The visualisation process starts where the bowl ends but winds back to the entire process that you need to go through to ensure that your bowl ends up where it is supposed to.
Once you have gone through the visualisation process I can ensure I am holding the bowl correctly, I can ensure my delivery is faultless and I can greatly increase the chances of my draw shot being successful.
Stakes
When talking about Stakes, Tim Ferriss is asking us to define “how do I set up stakes to create real consequences and guarantee I follow the program?”
By publically staking my reputation by publically posting this I have created some stakes of real consequence should I not follow through with what I say I am going to do. I am further creating stakes by linking this to my professional reputation below.
In order to create real stakes to encourage action Tim Ferriss suggests the following routine:
- Sign up for a service like StickK. stickK.com is an American Internet start-up company that enables users to make commitment contracts in order to reach their personal goals.
- Commit to donating to a charity that you hate – a charity that you don’t want to donate to.
- Make the failure donation amount a significant amount. Tim suggests at least 1% of your yearly income.
If your desired actions have consequences for non delivery then you will be more motivated to achieve them.
For the last couple of years I’ve wanted to be a better bowler but now by publically announcing Lawn Bowls Domination, I am more motivated to look towards making sure that I achieve these results. For other areas of my life, I am currently going through the DS3 processes and will likely ensure that they have consequences like those mentioned above.
I write this post for two reasons (and telling you about my desired lawn bowling prowess is not really one of them.)
1. You should all be reading Tim Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Chef. It is a great book and it’s not just about cooking.
2. I wanted to share with you how the DS3 method fits into my life and relates to my marketing Coaching packages. When I work with clients we follow this process. We identify those marketing opportunities available to an entrepreneur and then we drill down to those tactics that will have the most success. Entrepreneurs can’t do everything and need to concentrate on those steps that will bring the best results. We can run through a calendar and a schedule. With a business the stakes are obvious. If you are not marketing you are not getting new customers. If you aren’t getting new customers then you will go out of business. That’s pretty high stakes!
If you would like to find out more about my Marketing Coaching Packages, check out the web page here.