Practice makes perfect

Innovation and creativity are increasingly celebrated in today's knowledge economy, and quite rightly so. But it's getting to the point where some people are even re-characterising the Industrial Age as a time of look-alike factories, mechanical efficiency and rigid specialisation (forgetting that these were all incredible innovations at the time), and painting our own age as one of more enlightened innovation. 

For the avoidance of doubt - knowledge, creativity and innovation are critical. But it's somewhat ironic that one manifestation of this current celebration of creativity is that everyone's mostly jumping on the same bandwagons - cryptocurrency, blockchain, artificial intelligence - and hordes of people have suddenly become "passionate advocates for innovation and disruption" on LinkedIn :D Everyone wants to be the high-level conceptual knowledge consultant, no one wants to be the guy doing work in the trenches.

So let me sound a slightly different tone. We learn from a really young age, particularly within the Singapore education system, that practice really matters. If you practise enough maths papers under timed conditions, you get better and faster, and you learn patterns that allow you to answer the next question better and faster too. At some point, it becomes second nature, and you've internalised it. And it's not confined to maths. If you write enough Literature essays, you get better and faster too, and you learn the skill of spotting themes.

Practice takes grit. It takes perseverance. But isn't all that practice just useless rote learning? Possibly. If all you do is mindless rehearsal, then you have limited game value. But putting effort in the trenches is sort of the entry stakes to even be in the game at all. Incandescently talented basketball All-Star Kevin Durant said "Hard work beats talent, when talent doesn't work hard". UPenn professor Angela Duckworth, the author of "Grit" explained that effort counts twice, because: talent x effort = skill, and then skill x effort (again) = results

I recently re-learned this important lesson on practice and perseverance. For a number of years in the early to mid-2000s, my family went on mission trips to schools and villages in China (and once to Japan). We found it extremely challenging, because we only went 4 times in about 6 years (which may sound like a decent number, but think about it - what kind of meaningful new relationships can you really build if you only meet someone 4 times in 6 years?). Note that this was also in the days before WhatsApp, WeChat and the relative unavailability of the Internet in certain parts of the world, so it wasn't easy to keep in contact online. Eventually, we gave up. 

In the last couple of years, we restarted our interest in missions. This time, we decided to do work in a nearby country. It was much easier to get there and we could even do day trips, so it was actually possible for different teams to go several times a year, and for these trips to be sustainable in the long run. Whatsapp and email also made it much easier to keep in contact. But there was one major problem (ok aside from the unanticipated Covid pandemic which has prevented us from travelling!) - we didn't speak the language.

So I decided that, if I was serious about perseverance and long term commitment to this work, I would have to learn the language, and not have to keep relying on interpreters. If I was a real friend, I would try to learn the language. The solution wasn't merely "creativity" or "innovation". The solution was really, "work". 

So I picked up a language learning app (which I must say, is an innovative way of learning), and I'm proud to say that I have diligently put in serious daily work for several hundred days straight now. It took effort to create that habit, and consciously set aside time to learn, but now it's really become second nature to revise several lessons everyday.

Unfortunately, real practice isn't just about doing a lesson. It means actually putting what you learn to use.

Recently, I was doing some of my regular outreach in Singapore, and the family of one of the residents had engaged a new domestic helper who could only speak her own language (the one I was learning). My wife looked at me and said, go ahead, talk to her and ask her how it's been. 

And I absolutely froze.

My mind was a complete blank. All the lessons I'd been learning for the past several hundred days drained away. I'd been learning, but I hadn't been practising. And practising means putting to use. The fact is, I hadn't had anyone to actually talk to in my new language. All the words were in my head, but they weren't coming out of my mouth. I had put in the effort to acquire skill, but the skill was not translating to results. 

I imagine it's the same for many other scenarios. You can trawl the internet, read self-help books, consult coaches and trainers, attend webinars, talk about creativity and innovation, and make fancy presentation slides, but as long we don't put in the work to practise and actually do the work, again and again, it's useless.

In the context of the Christian walk, you can go to church and cell every week. You can read the Bible every day. You can go for lots of equipping classes to learn all the latest innovative methods and philosophies. But as long as you don't actually go out and live your life, having an impact on others, and practise preaching the gospel (and do it day after day), it's all useless head knowledge.

Creativity, innovation and knowledge aren't the problem. It's the lack of practice and application. Putting our boots on, and getting out there.

It's much less fun to hear that the solution is "consistent work", instead of a more magical "creativity". I get it. It's like hearing someone tell you the secret to a comfortable retirement is "consistent and disciplined savings and investment" and not "here's a hot multi-bagger stock tip!"

There's no shortcut - as wise King Solomon said in Proverbs 21:5 "The plans of the diligent lead to profit, as surely as haste leads to poverty".

Merely wanting something is not the same as actually working for it "The craving of a sluggard will be the death of him, because his hands refuse to work. All day long he craves for more, but the righteous give without sparing". Proverbs 21:25-26

So, thank God for creativity and innovation. But let me learn to go beyond daydreams, hot trends, blurbs and powerpoint slides, to Practise, Put to use, and do all that Persistently!

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