Develop routines. Find out what gets you ready for deliberate practice and then do it over and over again. Consider sleeping, eating, travelling, studying, taking care of mundane daily tasks.

The more often you practice, the more useful routines are. They save you from making decisions, which is hard work. So routines save energy and help you focus on the deliberate practice.

But remember, routines are just routines. Do not let them grow into superstitions. You can break your routines and still perform perfectly well – even though they help you in the long run.

Superstitions are bad because they make you worry about things unrelated to your performance. And worrying eats up your precious energy.

Have Talent, Will Travel

If you want to achieve excellency at anything, you must travel. You must travel to practice, study, play, perform, lecture. You may have to move another town or country for good.

Obviously, just travelling isn’t enough but you must live in a strange environment, eat unfamiliar food, make new friends. You must learn to stand on your own with nothing up your sleeve but your talent.

About your Try Shit entry: Are you familiar with the German term Differenzielles Training / Differencial Training? It is based on the idea of systematically mixing up the practice – I think Wolfgang Schollhorn is the main scholar on the subject.
This is a video about differential training in shot put.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2AMfyyUt5c&feature=related

Harri Mannonen, Basketball coach, Kouvola, Finland