Skill Comes from Repetition

You can think of skill as a series of railroad tracks. When they’re not used and exposed to the elements, they become rusty. But when they start to be used again, they get shiny – almost polished-looking.

Remember that your skill comes from repetition, and to be able to trust that skill, you need to build it through practice that’s structured and deliberate.

Your skill starts as knowledge, and is born through repetition, failure, and correction, skill is born – just like the railroad tracks becoming smoother with use.

Continuing with that metaphor, if the traffic that used to be on the tracks (your old skill) was switched to another set of rusty tracks (the new skill sequence), then your rusty tracks will be polished and shiny.

The new skill circuit is born and the old one loses its shiny appearance. It eventually fades into the weeds and gravel between the railroad ties.

It’s been said that it takes around 3,000 deliberate repetitions to make something consistent and subconscious. So, somewhere around 1,250 to 1,750 repetitions, the new circuit begins to take over and become a skill. The old one just fades away.