I blogged a few times that, your level of natural talent notwithstanding, excellence is achieved through deliberate practice (A Star is Made, A Star is Made – Part 2, Gladwell on Genius).

Deliberate practice is when you repeat an activity thousands of times with the specific purpose of improving your performance. You set specific goals, measure your performance, get prompt feedback and use it.

There is a fantastic in depth article on the topic in the latest Fortune. It’s the best article I have come across on deliberate practice and I strongly encourage all of you to read it. It’s an excerpt from Geoff Colvin’s new book: Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else.

Read the article at:
http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/21/magazines/fortune/talent_colvin.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008102116