Comments on: What’s Your Trajectory?

By: What’s the one thing that would make the biggest difference? — My Cultivated Life

Sun, 04 Jul 2010 16:04:34 +0000

[...] were acting in the name of acting, of filling moments, rather than moving TOWARD something.” What’s Your Trajectory?, by Jonathan Fields at Awake @ the [...]

By: oyun

oyun — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 09:50:27 +0000

Thank you for the reinforcements!

By: Oyun indir

Oyun indir — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 13:20:12 +0000

There are very useful and good information on your blog. thank you. I’m trying to follow your blog as best I can.

By: Jonathan Fields

Jonathan Fields — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 16:02:55 +0000

Great addition to the convo. We all need to start where we are and do what we can. There is no blanket course of action that’s right for every person

By: Dave - The Minimalist Path

Dave - The Minimalist Path — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 12:24:52 +0000

You should checkout Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers. It discusses this very thing throughout the entire book.

David Damron
LifeExcursion & The Minimalist Path

By: Steve Errey - The Confidence Guy

Steve Errey - The Confidence Guy — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:55:48 +0000

Lovely post Jonathan. It’s something I’m always aware of and saying to my own clients, but it’s always harder to put into practice than it is to understand.

I have chronic fatigue syndrome which means that energy, focus and clarity are hard to come by, and that’s something I know has held me back in 2009. I certainly want that to change in 2010, I need it to change in 2010, but to a good extent I’m limited by my own physical constraints. The same principle applies, it’s just a matter of baby steps instead of the deeper strides I really want to be making.

By: John Bardos

John Bardos — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 08:01:04 +0000

I have been playing guitar for about 25 years but most of it has only been playing around and not deliberate practice.

I put my skills at about 2000 hours of the 10,000 hours just because so much of that playing was not productive and done over a long period of time.

I think many people don’t understand that the quality of what you put into everything matters more than the total hours. People are discounting the value of things like university or getting a job, but I think the reason is that they are just wildly swinging at golf balls and not putting in the energy to improve.

By: Lucas Held

Lucas Held — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:01:21 +0000

I couldn’t agree more. I remember listening to a conservatory trumpet student practice a difficult section from Stravinsky’s Petrushka, The Dance of the Ballerina. The trumpeter did fine until he came to a particular passage toward the end, and then stumbled. How did he practice? He started all the way from the beginning, stumbled again, and then went back to the beginning. I listened for about 5 minutes saddened, knowing that 90 percent of his practice time was spent on what he could already do well, and only 10 percent on what he could not do.

How interesting that the same advice was given by a swimming coach this weekend. “When I’m swimming, I’m always thinking,” she said – meaning that she was thinking about a specific aspect of her technique, one aspect at a time so the mind does not go into overload.

By: Tim Woods

Tim Woods — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 19:49:34 +0000

Thanks for the post. I’ve summarized the insights from The Talent Myth and Outliers, related to Deliberate Practice, which you might find useful. Some really good insights on achieving goals.

All the best,
Tim

By: Laura

Laura — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 16:33:50 +0000

Great article… I should post this up at my office as a reminder. I often feel like I’m just doing what I need to get through the day, and tomorrow I will begin being deliberate. Then tomorrow comes and it is the same story

One thing I have tried to work on being deliberate about is relaxing more this year, and I will continue to work on that goal next year.

Professionally, I need to remember to apply the concept of making sure I know my trajectory at all times. I’ve been listening to Keith Ferrazi’s books in the car and it seems to mesh very well with your article today.