In this article I refer to those individuals who have clear purposes and goals to achieve. Each one of us thinks about how to improve life in different aspects as career, post university studies, how to become a better parent, how to have a healthier body, et cetera.

The first thing that comes to our mind is the information and the expertise we need to have in the aspect we want to improve. When we possess the right information, we will achieve the right results.

New knowledge / skills = desired results!

From my experience I have come to realize that it takes more than knowledge to achieve the desired results. However, the right information makes a big difference.

You can learn what exactly you need to do to lose weight or how to be fit. This is about cognitive learning but it is not enough especially knowing that the index of memorizing information decreases by time.

In other words, it is “knowledge + practice” formula that make us remember and practice what we have learned.

How does this happen? Whenever we practice something we have learned, we stimulate stable connections in our brain. This is how we create a new knowledge base which can be called “Active learning”.

Bruce Lee once said: “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”

Learning creates knowledge, practice creates skills.

Learning is great but not a purpose on its own

The best example I can provide is when we learn a foreign language: you can learn by great methods but if you don’t practice the language you learned, the probability to forget it in a couple of months is high.

Learning is great but it can remain only just knowledge if you don’t practice it. It can often become a barrier because while we are trying to become perfect at it, we tend to gain knowledge about the discipline all the time and we forget to practice what we are learning. It is practice what gives you the right skills even why at the beginning we might not be as perfect as we want to.

We learn by practice

You can learn how to swim only when you are at the sea (or in a pool)! Isn’t that true? Whatever course or swimming expert you work with, you will learn how to swim only when you are at the sea and start practicing what you learned.

While practicing a skill we are able to measure the level of our expertise and improve our skills. We invented huge computers and while working on them we improved them and came up with state of art laptops and desktop computers. This principle is applied in every field of our life.

Practice – the concentration of energies in the process

The people who climbed Mount Everest had all the right knowledge and had been practicing a lot and were physically and mentally ready for the big challenge. It was the hours of practice that helped them reach the highest peak of planet earth and led them to succeed.