Knowledge, skill, and stamina
Why you can’t make yourself do that thing you know you need to do.
Want to sign up for a call with me? You can do that here.
“I know what to do — I just need to do it.”
I have heard this poignant phrase more times than I can count. It makes my ears perk up. It’s a sign of something missing, and as a teacher and coach, I love to help people find the “something missing.”
I find that a lot of times people are saying this about a problem that they've been struggling with for a few years, like changing a longstanding habit or executing a major project. And whenever someone says it — “I know what I need to do — I just need to do it,” I think to myself, “No, you don't.” There is some kind of gap that is preventing them from moving forward. And it can't just be down to willpower.
Just knowing what to do is nowhere near enough to “just do it.”
In the first stage of learning, we figure out what to do. That’s the knowledge.
The next stage is to be able to do it — having the necessary skills.
Then comes the ability to do it well, over and over again, over a period of time. They have to have the stamina that comes from lots of practice.
If the skills aren’t developed or the stamina isn’t there, you won’t succeed, even if you have some knowledge. And, of course, there may be missing knowledge as well, if you don’t know what you don’t know.
What makes this so tricky is that, as you gain experience, the gaps might be smaller and harder to spot, and there are layers of knowledge, skill, and stamina that interrelate. In your profession, for instance, you might find yourself playing in all three of these stages at once, based on your knowledge, skill, and stamina in different aspects of the work.
For instance, you might have a hard time with making decisions about what to do next in a business venture because you don’t have the data, information, and experience to make choices confidently (a knowledge problem).
At the same time, maybe you’re good at delivering the service you sell, creating a great rapport and building trust with clients with each session (you have the skills).
However, perhaps when it comes to marketing, you are inconsistent (a stamina problem).
When we don’t know what to do, we’ve got a knowledge gap.
When we know what to do but struggle to execute it well, we’ve got a skill gap.
And when we are able to do it well but not consistently, we’re looking at a stamina gap.
No matter where you are, it’s okay. Because maybe now you can see the situation more clearly, and that’s the first step toward improving it.
It can be challenging to recognize that a piece of knowledge is missing if we’re used to thinking of ourselves as someone who has the answers. That can be a revelation in itself. From there, however, solving the problem is pretty straightforward. Most of us are used to improving our knowledge. We know how to find the information we need, and school has taught us the process for absorbing it.
Repairing a skill gap is where things get tricky. Often, this requires going out and asking for help from another human being. It’s awfully difficult to improve your own tennis swing, singing voice, or social skills without feedback, and the kind of direct feedback we get from an expert can take years off of the learning process. This is how we go from just knowing something to knowing how, being able to, and then performing at a high level.
Once we’ve built up the skills, we’ve got to continue to practice. For a professional, it’s not enough just to be able to execute effectively — we have to be able to do it every time, day after day, under stress and facing pressure. That’s what makes the difference between “very good” and “world class.” How does the tennis swing hold up in the fourth set of the Wimbledon final? How do we sound on the twentieth concert of our North American tour? How do we behave when we’re being introduced to a rival world leader regarding a sensitive issue of international diplomacy — on four hours of sleep? This is where the stamina comes in.
Improving our knowledge, skill, and stamina is the work of a lifetime. We aren’t born with these things and they do not develop by accident. It is the patient, day to day work, with the necessary support and resources, that will allow us to reach our highest level of potential and get what we want out of life.
Some questions to consider in the meantime:
What knowledge is missing for you? What skills do you need to develop? And where do you need to build stamina? And what might you need to let go of in order to free up energy for the work that needs to be done?
What support do you need to accomplish what you’ve set out to do? Where are you succeeding? Where are you struggling?
Where might you have the knowledge, skill, and stamina to contribute your support, insight, and encouragement to help others?
And please let me know how I can help. It’s literally what I’m here for.