By Leo Babauta

Lately I’ve been studying chess — something I’m not good at, but really love learning. In just a couple of months, I’ve already seen a lot of improvement, which is always encouraging.

It has me reflecting a lot on what it takes to get good at anything. I coach others to be at their best, and to continually improve at the game they’re playing in life, and I’ve learned a lot.

Here are some thoughts:

• Make it play: Whether you’re trying to get good at a sport or a game, or learn a language or a science … make it grueling work will only drain your motivation and you’ll quit after awhile. Don’t make this mistake! Instead, make it fun, mix it up, bring a sense of play to your practice. When I study chess, I like to challenge myself, but I also don’t make myself grind when it’s not fun.

• Work on the fundamentals: Figure out the 1–2 skills that will make the biggest difference for you. For me, it was learning to spot when one of my chess pieces could be taken — I practiced this board vision over and over (and am still practicing). Now it’s recognizing tactical patterns and learning to calculate a few moves ahead. Whatever you’re learning, find the skill(s) that will get you the most improvement, and work on those before trying a bunch of other skills. There’s always more to learn, but focus really helps.

• Celebrate any progress: One of the most encouraging things is to see progress. That’s why people like numbers — if number go up, yay! But numbers don’t always reflect your progress. So every week, look for little signs of progress — is something getting a bit easier? Are you just a little bit better at something you’ve been practicing? Can you see results that are better this month than a few months ago? Learn to celebrate this.

• Immerse yourself: A couple months ago, I realized that chess grandmasters have a fluency in the patterns of the game that I don’t have — it’s like someone just starting to learn a language vs. someone who has native fluency. This insight gave me a strategy: immersion. Just like language immersion really helps you to learn faster, immersing myself in chess has really helped me to start to speak the language of the game. I can see patterns and understand things I couldn’t before — though I still have a long way to go before I have any real fluency. How can you immerse yourself in what you’re trying to get good at?

• Get the help of a coach: I’m a strong believer that there’s only so much we can see for ourselves. With chess, I got a stronger player to coach me, I have a Zen teacher for my spiritual practice, and in my business and personal growth I have an executive coach. It strongly accelerates your growth, because otherwise we can’t see what we can’t see, and we end up stumbling around without an outside perspective. If you’d like my help in accelerating your growth, you can hire me as a coach — let’s talk.

I hope this helps! I’m still at the early stages of my improvement journey, but I’m really encouraged by the great progress I’ve seen so far. I’m wishing you the best on yours!