From the recent practice survey we conducted at Brookline Tai Chi and experiments I've been running in online learning, it's become clearer and clearer to me that most people need some external motivation when they are learning a new skill. That's not a judgment about willpower and motivation, it actually says more about the way we are wired for survival. In Z Health, we always talk about the way that the nervous system is at once the most plastic system -- it can adapt to lots of different changes -- and also the most stable. The stability of the nervous system is a good thing from a survival and energy management point of view -- it doesn't cost you a lot of cognitive energy to get through your day if you run on habit. In that sense, the plasticity of the nervous system -- your ability to change and learn new things -- has to deal with the inertia of stability in your nervous system. When we are trying to learn new behaviors and forge new habits, these two things can be at odds.

What I've seen and heard from my tai chi students, is that a little bit of external motivation goes a long way to spark the small changes you need to make on a daily basis to put new behavior in place. Last week, one of my students said:

It was liberating to think that 5 minutes of tai chi practice meant I could make progress, because until I thought about it that way, I avoided practice, assuming it was going to take 30 minutes or more.

In fact, if you look at some studies on mental rehearsal and brain function, like this one, you start to see that the cognitive component of learning new skills can be practiced in a much easier way than devoting hours and hours of grueling practice -- time that very few people I work with have to spare anyway. The smarter you get about your practice, the better you'll get at getting good at new things!

So here's my DIY Home Practice Challenge for you:

• Drill down into your practice until you get to a small chunk you can practice in 5 minutes
• Pick the easiest time of day to devote to your practice -- what's the perfect scenario for practicing this skill
• Set a recurring reminder in your calendar -- pick the medium that will be most accessible to get the reminder at the right time, i.e. on your desktop to interrupt your work, via email, or even text message
• Each day when you get the reminder, do your 5 minute practice, and then maybe take a minute or two to reflect on the success of what you just did or refine the scenario if necessary

You will fail to build up this practice habit if:

• You pick too big a skill to work on, e.g. I want to become a ballerina
• You are vague about when you are going to do it, e.g. I will practice it daily
• You don't get the reminder at the right time, e.g. I'll practice at noon each day, but my reminder comes in at 6pm

I know those failures might sound obvious, and you should pick something pretty simple and obvious to begin with, but what I hope is that once you see the power in this simple approach, you'll start to tackle more complex and exciting skill building and begin to reflect on a lot of different experiences, in business, at work, in personal relationships, with the same desire to make incremental progress as you do with a hobby or healthy habit.

I'm always curious to hear how this goes for people, so send me an email or drop a comment below once you get set up and start hitting your daily targets.