Practice, Practice, Practice

I'm not sure what it is about my personality but I've always sought to try new things. I think I just like challenges. Although, simply overcoming a challenge is not usually enough for me. I want to feel like I've conquered the challenge.

As an example, several years ago I taught myself how to complete a Rubik's Cube. It wasn't enough for me to simply finish it once, I wanted to be able to do it at a whim. Once I got that down, I proceeded to seeing if I could solve a completely random cube under 3 minutes (sorry, I'm not a speedcuber). Only until I accomplished that did I feel I had mastered the feat of solving a Rubik's Cube.

I've applied this attitude to many other things that I've done: running, triathlons, basketball, etc. But for every thing I feel like I've conquered there have been busts along the way. This got me to thinking, what was different about the busts? How did I approach them differently?

The answer is rather simple. Its practice. With running and triathlons its straight forward. You have to "practice" all the time or you won't have enough of a fitness base to complete the race. With my Rubik's Cube example, I would bring the Cube with me to every break and give it a quick solve before going back to work. This isn't like the sense of what we think of as a traditional scheduled practice but it is the same concept.

repeated performance or systematic exercise for the purpose of acquiring skill or proficiency

[Source: dictionary.com]

One "bust" that I feel I've had was my programming skills. For the past several years because of whatever excuse I've allowed myself to just settle with my current knowledge and ability rather than seeking out ways to improve professionally.

In my search to find ways to improve my skills, I stumbled upon an old Yegge Post where he further emphasizes the need for practice.

The great engineers I know are as good as they are because they practice all the time. People in great physical shape only get that way by working out regularly, and they need to keep it up, or they get out of shape. The same goes for programming and engineering.

What about everyone else? Is there something that just needed a lot of practice for mastery? Can you think of examples where you didn't need any kind of practice at all?