[Neurons] 2012 Meta Reflections #26

[Michael Hall]

L. Michael Hall

Meta Reflections 2012  #26

May 14, 2012

Empowerment Series #13

 

 

THE POWER OF EXPERTISE

 

 

To develop an expertise is to develop an unique power- a skill or competency
that distinguishes you and that has the possibility of creating a particular
self-confidence for you as well as the value that you give to create your
form of wealth.  So, what are you an expert in?  What have you spent at
least ten years in concentrated focus on that now you can take pride in as a
legitimate talent that you have turned into a skill?  Oh, yes, did I
mentioned that it generally takes ten-years of deliberate practice to
cultivate a talent or disposition into a legitimate expertise?

 

That was the discovery that Anders Ericcksson , the Swedish Psychologist,
discovered in his longitudinal research on expertise (The Cambridge Handbook
of Expertise and Expert Performance, 2006).  More recently Malcolm Gladwell
has popularized this discovery and so you can now read about it in lots of
books.

 

The power of expertise is that it enables you to develop what we call
self-confidence in a given activity which you know that you can pull off.
Why do you know that?  Because you have done it.  You have history with
doing it.  You have practiced, deliberately.  And when you develop
self-confidence again and again in various areas, that allows you to draw a
larger or a meta-conclusion and create another really powerful state- one
that we call self-efficacy.  This is your sense of being efficacious- being
able and skilled to trust your wits, intelligence, learning, emotional
intelligence, etc. to handle the challenges of life.

 

Self-confidence is about the past-you have evidence that you have done
something and proven yourself over and over.  Self-efficacy is about the
future-trust in yourself that as you have learned to become competent in
other things, so you can in yet more activities.

 

Now if there is any solid way to create wealth, it is through the
development of an expertise that adds value to people's lives.  That's
because when you have expert knowledge and skill in an area of importance,
you have something valuable to give and contribute to others.  And that's
what wealth is and where financial wealth comes from.  (See the book,
Inside-Out Wealth, 2009). Of course, to develop the power of expertise
requires that you use and apply several other powers that you have: the
power of response, of responsibility, of ownership, of execution, etc. 

 

Yet on the other hand there are lots of things that can undermine and
sabotage the power of expertise.  You probably already know what they are,
do you not?  Some may surprise you.  Perhaps the most surprising one is that
of multi-tracking, that is, trying to do too many things at the same time.
In recent years, the field of the neuro-sciences have demonstrated that
multi-tracking undermines the efficiency of concentration and focus and that
no one does as well in multi-tracking as most people think they do!  Yet
because you are dividing your attention when you attempt to pay attention to
two or more things at the same time, the quality of your attention will
inevitably suffer.

 

Another sabotage is living off of the thrill of the chase of every new thing
and new fad that pops onto the scene.  This is another significant sabotage
to the power of expertise and also, at the same time, an occupation hazard
for most people who want to be on the cutting edge and achieve as much as
they can.  Yet if you are changing your mind every three or six months, or
every year or other year, you will never be able to tap into the power of
deliberate practice, of persistence, patience, resilience, and perseverance
that's required for true expertise.

 

Another sabotage is the attitude of having arrived and of knowing-it-all.
The seduction is that as you do indeed master an area and develop true
expertise, you may not want to be a novice again.  And so you may refuse to
enter into a new area of your field and be a novice again.  After all, you
may frame being a novice again as to be inadequate since you are receiving
instruction and training from others.  Yet here is the paradox.  Those who
do attain expertise seem to have something in common-namely, they have a
childlike mind of curiosity, continuous learning, surprise, delight,
playfulness, and the fantastic ability to say, "I don't know."  "But I want
to know, and I will!  Tell me what you know!"  It is the non-expert who puts
on airs and acts like a know-it-all and doesn't ask questions for fear that
someone may think he doesn't know something!

 

Have you become an expert in a certain area?  The danger of our age is that
most people end up "a jack of many trades and a master of none."  Yet it is
in thinking long-term, for at least a decade, and giving yourself intensely,
deliberately, and in a focused way to a given activity or area that
expertise emerges.  Why is that?  That's because mastery is in the details.

 

After all, what's the difference between someone who is very good at
something and the master?  Between the person who plays the violin in the
back row of the orchestra and the front seat player?  What's the difference
between those golfers who play in the Masters and are listed in the top 100
and the 5 or 10 players who we know by name and who regularly play in the
first five positions?  The master of the details of that profession.  The
discipline of being consistent and focused.

 

Do you want more personal empowerment?  More power to make a difference?
Then take your mental, emotional, physical, and personal energy and focus it
like a laser-beam on something so that you turn on your passion, your
commitment, and your persistence.  Do that and you will begin to unleash
your unique powers!

 

 

Neuro-Semantic News

.         18 plus 5 are signed up for NSTT at this moment.  If you are
interested, now is the time to let us know.

.          Meta-Coaching Coaching Mastery 2012 is occurring right now in
Hong Kong and in another week, in Mexico City.  And after this in 5 other
cities around the world.

.         Only one year from now the Second International Conference of
Neuro-Semantics - this time in Malaysia.


 

 

L.  Michael Hall, Ph.D.

Neuro-Semantics Executive Director  ----   <http://www.neurosemantics.com/>
www.neurosemantics.com

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO.  81520 USA                              

1 970-523-7877                                               

     

What is Neuro-Semantic NLP?   Get your free subscription to "Neurons" ---
the weekly International  Newsletter of Neuro-Semantics.  Subscribe at
<http://www.neurosemantics.com/> www.neurosemantics.com.   Dr. Hall sends
out  Meta Reflections  every Monday (Colorado time).  Trainers' Reflections
occur  on Tuesdays and Meta-Coach Reflections on  Wednesdays.   Contact Dr.
Hall at   <mailto:meta at acsol.net> meta at acsol.net  

 

For world-class Coach Training --- see Meta-Coaching System at
<http://www.meta-coaching.org/> www.meta-coaching.org and at
<http://www.metacoachfoundation.org> www.metacoachfoundation.org  

 

Neuro-Semantics launched the New Human Potential Movement in 2007, for
information about the Self-Actualization workshops, go to
<http://www.self-actualizing.org/> www.self-actualizing.org

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://eight.pairlist.net/pipermail/neurons/attachments/20120514/b9d1c8b2/attachment.html>