Shatter And Start

by Vasco Patrício

This is something I have stumbled upon while investigating how we get better at certain things, how we evolve and how our performance evolves. Our performance is not always continuous. It's made primarily of levels. Plateaus. You reach a plateau, and you have to break it to get to the next one.

Every time we do something for a long time we develop not only our conscious competences, but our unconscious competences. We, in our minds, develop a sense of how we do it. However, we also saturate that unconscious competence. If we are always performing the same task, we always have the same preferences, train the same areas, and leave the same ones untrained too.

Simply, in order to become better, in order to free ourselves, we have to go back to stage zero. Interrupt what we're currently doing. That is the way to step to the next level.

We have a set of actions we take. That set of actions can take us only so far. If we want to go the next level, we don't just have to train the current set of actions. We have to interrupt them, go back to start, find a new set of actions, and then train that new set. And so on.

Let's analyze how we make progress. When I mean stepping to a new level, I don't mean doing more of the same thing right. That is a component. However, a new level is something completely different – it's a new level. You have a whole new range of options, much stronger bases, and whole new capabilities. You don't get these doing more of the same.

Most people train the same area over and over again. They saturate and saturate. They live always on the same track. People with success train an area, abandon it and go back to zero, then go back into that area, train the most they can, go back to zero, and so on.

This works because every time you're going back to zero, you're not actually going back to zero. You're at the same stage, but you have more experience that gives you more possibilities.

This works not only with your capabilities, but with your lifestyle and tastes too. Let me give you an example.

A person has free time and wants to decide on a hobby. He decides on surfing on the net. He has no experience so he makes that decision and follows it. He surfs on the net on his free time and discovers it's fun but it gives him back pain, after some time.

So he goes back to zero. Okay, I've got free time and I have to choose a hobby. However, I'm not making my decision from scratch now. I already now choosing a hobby related with computers might give me back pain if I do it for too long. So I choose sports.

So he chooses doing sports, such as running, and he discovers after some time it takes more time, but it has health and other benefits. So he trains until he wants something new.

He goes back to zero. Okay, what hobby can I have? I already know something related with computers takes up not much time but can give me back pain, and exercise might have benefits but takes up more time. He makes a new decision considering all his past experiences.

Now, people in day-to-day lives have different courses of actions. They choose an action and choose it all the way, then stack other actions on top. Our person would choose to surf the Net for a hobby, then add running on top of it. He would do all actions, but he would be starting from the same base for all of them.

Sometimes, in order to step to a new level, you don't just continue. You have to go back, unlearn what you've learned. Because even though your actions ceased, your mental architecture already registered that experience. You don't know that at the time, so when you go back you have to just trust and say "I don't know how, but I'm going to stop doing this, rest for a while, and when I get better I'll be ten times better at it".

This works because you have flexibility in all levels and freedom in all levels. Every time you shatter and start again, you have the whole range of possibilities, and you have a closed chapter of past action and that experience. If you just stockpile actions on top of each other you don't know what conclusions you already took, you are limited in your possibilities because you're already doing certain actions, and so on.

So, in a way, you throw all your current actions away, but you never throw your personality away. So every time you're going back to zero, you're going back to an "action zero", but your personality and your experience remain.

If you're not growing you're dying.

Of course this should not be taken exaggeratedly. If you want to implement a new habit – for the next 3 weeks I'm going to train my abs hardcore – and it's your second day, it might not be the best solution to break and start again. The thing is, fulfill that task to the end. Until you either achieve your goal or saturate your deadline. Then, by all means, immediately stop, go back to zero, and decide on a new action.

You have two phases in each course of action: First phase, you're driven by a goal, second phase, you've stagnated. When you reach your goal or you stagnate, you must immediately break and start a new goal. If you keep always doing the same thing and being stale, you'll soon neutralize all the good effects you produced in yourself.