In this post I am going to summarize some useful ideas on training. We train ourselves to be able to do things we wouldn't be able to do without training—for example, you might physically train for more strength or you might memorize some procedure to do some work, or you might learn to recognize some kind of system of patterns (as in programing, reading foreign languages).

Select a target

To train something, you need to know what that something is. If your goals are not very well-defined (e.g. I want to get better at music) your efforts may be in vain. It is better to have at least some well defined goal, even if it doesn't have a definite endpoint—for example, you might strive to do push-ups until the point of exhaustion to build strength. What is essential is that you know what actions you need to take in order to make progress.

One easy way to do this for work that involves bodies of knowledge is to get a good, comprehensive book on a subject or alternatively some book that is broken up into lessons arranged in some logical order. Then, your work will be defined by working through the content in that book.

For example, in learning to play a musical instrument, you can find many "self-teaching" courses. Typically, these books will progress through increasingly difficult exercises to build up skills step by step. With diligently applied effort, you can be certain you will build your skill. ¹

Allocate time to make progress

Once you have selected some target, you need to consistently apply effort towards achieving your goals. You should be prepared to work a little bit each day at each thing you want to work at—expecting to have very long time blocks of applied effort (e.g. 8 hour practice sessions) is probably unfeasible, especially over sustained periods of time. ²

Patience is key; do not become discouraged if you do not immediately make fast progress. Instead, focuse on doing a good job on the little bit you're concentrating on each practice session. Little by little you will improve. If expert help is available, do seek out correction to refine your movements. Always seek to refine your movements, but do not get too caught up on every detail—for instance, if you are learning a foreign language, your pronunciation may not be perfect at first. This is okay; you can just concentrate on learning how to pronounce words in a "good enough" way to be understood, learn how these words are spelt, and then focus on improving your pronunciation later.

"Use it or lose it"

Do take time to review things you have learned by using the things you learned. Some things, like memorizing texts, you will "use" by reciting (whether aloud or in your mind); at a moment when you might check your phone or watch television, you can instead choose to take the couple minutes or however long it takes to recite some text to concentrate and actively recall what you've learned. If this is very difficult and you mess up, you know where to review and how to train to not fail next time. If it is very easy, you already have your reward!

For systematic bodies of knowledge such as how to play an instrument or how to speak a language, you may have use your knowledge by exposing yourself to new texts, memorizing things using that system, or doing work using that system.

Pitfalls

You do not want to choose something too difficult for a target. For example, rather than trying to memorize an entire very long text at once, you can work on a text line by line. Some texts, like Scripture (Biblical) is numbered in a consistent way.

To build proficiency in a skill, a mistake I've often made is to fail to select a new target. I haven't improved musically recently because I'm not really working on learning to play any pieces. On some languages, I'm not doing very much either. The way to start improving at these activities again is to start working on some target—even if it is only for five minutes a day—which will require the work of selecting new targets.

Which leads us to the issue of organization. Rather than being an issue of "lack of talent", lots of skill training has to do with simply being organized and disciplined. If you can be organized and disciplined, you can then acquire skills which will allow you to experience more interesting things—such as freedom of expression. Freedom of expression only comes after lots of hard work, however. Prematurely trying to "do your own thing" can lead you to stagnate and harden bad habits instead of improving.

Therefore, little emphasis should be placed on creativity. It is better to learn how to do things properly. Then, as each individual is unique, your individuality will naturally be reflected in your craft.