Why Self-Improvement Should Be a Group Activity - DBR 100

Change is hard because we are habitual creatures. This episode explores how to leverage our powerful social nature to overcome the difficulty of self-improvement and achieve mastery. Getting better allows us to experience greater joy, agency, and efficiency, leading to less stress. Learn how to overcome cultural hurdles and utilize group dynamics for strong accountability, effective feedback, and deliberate practice.

Overcoming Cultural Hurdles

• The Cultural Fallacy: Our culture often worships "talent" and creates an illogical fallacy that admitting the need for improvement means admitting you are not very good. This prevents us from openly seeking to get better at externally important and visible activities.
• Leveraging Social Nature: We must utilize our strong social instinct—a powerful force—to aid improvement. This means finding a group that is also committed to improving, making them less likely to use our efforts against us.

Leveraging Social Accountability and Community

• Accountability: Strong accountability is derived from our social nature, acting as motivation based on our instinct for approval, especially from those on the journey with us. Self-accountability is extremely difficult.
• Seek and Accept Feedback: Establish people who will give you empirical feedback—an informal 360-degree review. We must learn not just how to give feedback, but how to receive it, giving others permission to observe and comment on our work.
• Find Others on a Similar Journey: Create a community where people agree to be open and honest about new habits or skills they are trying to install. This honesty helps our brains become less defensive and provides tactical tips (e.g., using a kitchen timer instead of a phone for a workout).

Improving Visibility and Observation

• The Challenge of Self-Evaluation: It is very difficult to perform and evaluate your performance simultaneously. In the heat of the moment, the majority of your cognitive energy is focused on the content of the performance, leaving little room to observe mistakes or improper form.
• Create "Game Film": Technology allows us to create our own "game film" (e.g., recording work or typing to count backspace usage).
• Enlist Intentional Observation: Ask other people to be intentional observers. Group members can agree to watch each other, perhaps tracking a specific behavior like filler words during a presentation.

Creating and Utilizing a Laboratory (Practice Environment)

• The Need for a Lab: It’s hard to get better when every activity is a "live fire exercise," as we push back to what was previously successful and are less likely to innovate due to fear. A laboratory is an environment intentionally set up for experiments.
• Key Aspects of the Practice Facility:
• Realism: The lab must resemble the actual performance environment.
• Remove Barriers: Practice less when the environment is hard to set up. Configure gear so that only one button push is needed to start, or remove psychological barriers like using a headset so you don't annoy others.
• Accountability for Utilization: External accountability is necessary for actually using the practice environment.
• Utilize Coaching: Coaches are an efficiency tool that provides accountability, tips, shortcuts, and a curriculum. Always seek a coach who can articulate a plan for what you will learn. Paying for coaching turns improvement into an investment.

Conclusion

Because we are habitual creatures and change is hard, we must lean into external, social structures. The social instinct is key, providing the strong accountability and observation necessary for growth. By creating a dedicated, realistic practice "laboratory" and utilizing coaching, we can effectively engage in group self-improvement. All these things work together—the accountability, the observation, the dedicated environment, and the social nuance of shared effort.

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