The difference between a Professional and a Novice

It doesn’t matter what you are trying to do to improve your practice, if you only do the work when you’re motivated, then you’ll never be consistent enough to become a professional.

The ability to stick to the task and do the work – especially when you don’t feel like it – is key. But it is difficult, even painful at times.

Most of the time we are inherently inconsistent. We plan, set goals that we would like to achieve, but being a professional means having to focus, not taking the easy path of saying mañana (tomorrow). Professionals know what is important for them to develop their practice and work towards mastery. Novices get distracted and diverted by the urgent unimportant.

Being professional means having the discipline to commit to what is important and not just working hard and long hours. It’s about getting the priority task finished when you feel like stopping. It’s about focus, on the maximum return on time invested.

Steps to Becoming a Professional

1. Decide what is important
Knowing what your purpose is, means it is much easier to know what is important. So take time and set out the objectives you want to achieve in the next 90 days, then write out the actions needed to achieve them.

This sounds simple, but in practice most people do not take the time to plan ahead.

2. Schedule action
Once you know what you want, set a schedule to actually do it. We are talking about specific actions that will lead to the desired objective. Don’t schedule the results you want.

3. Review progress
Make sure you regularly review progress, at least on a weekly basis – what has been completed, what has been achieved, what didn’t work out, what were the successes. The adjust the next actions accordingly.

Everyone’s journey is different.

What areas of your practice do you want to be a professional in?
What’s important to you?

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