Excellence is a habit

We are generally not good at anything the first time we do it.

Most things take time to learn. 

We achieve excellence by doing things repeatedly, which become habits. Habits become automatic. This means that we can still do something well with minimal thought put into it.

Have you ever gotten to the point with a routine where you do it mindlessly but somehow it falls out of habit? Often, the next time you do it, you'll have to think through it again. Luckily, our muscle memory allows us to pick it up quicker than we did when we first learned it, but it still takes a moment to get back into the groove.

In modern psychology they teach about the 4-stages of learning.

1. Unconscious Incompetence (you don't know what you don't know)
2. Conscious Incompetence (you know what you don't know)
3. Conscious Competence (you have to think about what you now know)
4. Unconscious Competence (you know it without thinking about it)

Getting to stage 4 is not as hard as you may think. If you continue the repetition of learning something new by creating a habit and practicing it, before you know it, that 'thing' will be as easy as riding a bike.

What do you want to be excellent at in your life?

Start building those habits today.