Many experts say he may be the best football player ever, regardless of position. Basically, Rice was a one-in-a-lifetime talent. Literally, the best of the best. Geoff Colvin’s popular book, Talent is Overrated, shares an interesting story about Rice’s work ethic and his approach to deliberate practice. As you’ll see, it wasn’t just talent that made Rice successful. We can all learn from this legendary NFL star’s approach and use similar strategies to improve our health, our work, and our lives.
The Training Schedule of Jerry Rice
This short excerpt from Talent is Overrated explains Rice’s typical training schedule. It is obvious that Jerry Rice put in an incredible volume of work. This is no surprise. Unwavering consistency is a requirement for achieving excellence. To put it simply, you can’t expect to become great at something without practicing it over and over. However, it wasn’t just the amount of time Rice spent practicing that made the difference, he used other strategies to master his craft.
Excellence Requires More Than Just Practice
Excellence also requires the right kind of practice. The natural tendency for humans (professional athletes included) is to fall into a routine once we achieve an adequate level of performance. For example, you might practice a golf swing the same way over and over. Or a professional wide receiver might practice running their routes the same way over and over. In the beginning, this repetition is required to develop skills. As I’ve mentioned in earlier articles (here, here, and here), it’s only by going through a volume of work that beginner’s can hope to reach a level of excellence. At some point; however, you reach a certain skill level. Simply repeating the same pattern again and again doesn’t foster much additional growth. In fact, this is true at any level of skill. If you practice in the same way you always have, you’ll get the same results you always have. Anders Ericsson, the psychologist behind the 10,000 Hour Rule, explained this important caveat saying, “You don’t get benefits from mechanical repetition, but by adjusting your execution over and over to get closer to your goal. You have to tweak the system by pushing, allowing for more errors at first as you increase your limits.” This is where Jerry Rice separated himself from the rest of the pack. He finished college as an All-American wide receiver, but he didn’t let his skills plateau. Even at a high level, Rice found ways to practice deliberately, rather than mindlessly. He pushed the edge of his abilities, rather than repeat old patterns without improvement. In other words, Rice always found ways to become one percent better. Let’s talk about how Rice decided which areas to focus on improving.
Focus on Your Areas of Greatest Leverage
The classic test for speed in the NFL is the 40-yard dash. Before being drafted by the San Francisco 49ers, Rice was reported as running the 40 in 4.7 seconds. For reference, in 2014 there were multiple quarterbacks and even a defensive lineman that posted faster times than that. And yet, it is unlikely that any of these players will have a career half as prolific as that of Jerry Rice. Compared to other wide receivers, Rice’s mediocre speed could be seen as a weakness. How did he overcome it? By leveraging his greatest strengths. Here’s another quote from Colvin’s Talent is Overrated to further demonstrate the point.. Consider how easy it would have been for Rice to practice in a different way. Nobody would have questioned Rice if he spent all of his time training to improve his relative weakness (speed) and simply maintaining his other skills. Instead, he focused on mastering his assets — precision, endurance, and strength — to a degree beyond anyone else. It doesn’t matter what skill you are trying to perfect, finding the areas where your particular skill set provides the greatest leverage and focusing on those areas will reap enormous benefits.
Applying This to Your Life
Jerry Rice was blessed with incredible talent, but it was his work ethic and his commitment to continual improvement that allowed him to transform that talent into one of the greatest careers that the NFL has ever seen. For you and me, the skills and circumstances may be very different from that of Jerry Rice, but the principles are the same. If we want to execute in real life and master the skills that are important to us, then we need to: Masters of Habit is a series of mini-biographies on the rituals, routines, and mindsets of great athletes, artists, and leaders. James Clear writes at JamesClear.com, where he shares science-based ideas for living a better life and building habits that stick. To get strategies for boosting your mental and physical performance by 10x, join his free newsletter. This article was originally published on JamesClear.com. Featured photo credit: velo_city via flickr.com
