We continue with our Improve Your Talent series with a ninth tip from The Little Book of Talent by Daniel Coyle. Today’s tip falls into the first category for improving habits: Getting Started. In this category, the idea is to focus on ideas for igniting motivation and creating a blueprint for the skills you want to build.
Coyle writes that “soft skills catch our eye because they are beautiful: Picture the soccer star Lionel Messi improvising his way to a brilliant goal, or Jimi Hendrix blazing through a guitar solo, or Jon Stewart riffing through a comic monologue. These talents appear utterly magical and unique. In fact they are the result of super-fast brain software recognizing patterns and responding in just the right way.”
He continues: “Soft skills are built by playing and exploring inside challenging, ever-changing environments. These are places where you encounter different obstacles and respond to them over and over, building the network of sensitive wiring you need to read, recognize, and react. In other words, in order to build soft skills you should behave more like a skateboarder in a skateboard park: aggressive, curious, and experimental, always seeking new ways to challenge yourself.”
