There is no substitute for experience when it comes to increasing expertise. It is only in practical experience that our skills and knowledge unite to determine our ability to perform. Experience, however, gives us something more than just a stage upon which to exercise skills and knowledge.

Experience offers an opportunity to learn. Unfortunately, all too often we ignore the lessons offered she offers and simply repeat, again and again, the same ineffective patterns of performance. Consider, for example, our handwriting. We have been writing for years. Has the quality of your handwriting improved? With your extensive writing experience, do you consider yourself a handwriting expert? If you are like most people, despite considerable experience, your handwriting has not improved much over time, and perhaps has even declined in quality. To become a peak performer, you must learn to let experience work for you, and you can learn to do this!

To learn her valuable lessons requires thoughtfully analyzing experiences to identify: a) what we did well and b) what could be improved. By understanding what we did well in a particular experience allows us to use the same skills or knowledge in similar situations in the future. We know what works! By recognizing what could be improved,and we can always find ways to improve, we identify the skills we need to hone or knowledge we need to gain to become even better at what we do. Experience is a great teacher, but only for good students. Learn to capture and exploit her lessons.