I have been in the rehab industry for 6 years.
During that time, I have worked with professional athletes. I have also had the opportunity to publish papers in peer reviewed journals. In fact, I have invested so many hours into mastering my craft that I have been fortunate to have spoken at seminars, conferences and on podcasts.
But do you want to know a secret? I’m still working towards becoming an expert.
Expertise have the ability to efficiently complete a task with a high success rate. Experts use less energy and less brain activity. They have learned to tune out irrelevant information. As a new grad, I envied experienced practitioner’s ability to reach a diagnosis with minimal effort. That’s because they focus on a few cues that they know are relevant and ignore the irrelevant. Not only do they tune out the irrelevant, but they also pull more information from the few relevant cues. Becoming an expert requires practice. Hours and hours of repetition.
In my quest to becoming an expert, I’ve applied these 3 techniques to reach a higher level of efficiency.
Technique #1: Visualization
As a new grad, before any new assessments, I would visualize the process step by step.
Here’s how it works:
- Incorporate as many senses as possible. Imagine the weight of a limb in your hands, the feeling of a restricted joint or of a tight muscle. This helps put you in the moment.
- Alternate between first and third person. Envision what you will see, feel and hear. But also envision what you will look like working from another persons viewpoint. This will help you get a view of what you being successful looks like from the outside.
- Visualize through unexpected events. This will help you envision how you react to certain setbacks. You can then work through them in your head to get back on track before they actually happen.
This simple template allows you to:
- Identify potential obstacles
- Develop strategies around these obstacles
- Gives you an emotional preview of the experience
- Helps build your confidence
- Stimulates similar neural pathways as the actual event.
Technique #2: Self-Reflection
Practice and observation are not enough to become an expert. True wisdom comes when we can reflect on our experiences, challenge our beliefs and experiment with our assumptions.
Here’s how it works:
- Journaling. I use my charting as a way to pause, reflect and plan. Sometimes there’s a lot going on during the day and I don’t have the time to sit and reflect when I’m with patients. I take the time while I’m charting to review and reflect.
- In my assessment and plan, I ask questions like: “What’s working?”, “What isn’t working?”, “What can I do differently?”
- Writing things down is also a way to stumble upon patterns which turn into lessons that can help us improve.
- Journaling. I use my charting as a way to pause, reflect and plan. Sometimes there’s a lot going on during the day and I don’t have the time to sit and reflect when I’m with patients. I take the time while I’m charting to review and reflect.
Don’t skip charting. Make it a learning and reflection tool. These steps will make you better.
Technique #3: Avoid Automaticity
Paradoxically, with experience comes automaticity. Automaticity allows us to focus less on our actions, making them more effortless. However, paying less attention to our actions makes it harder to improve our abilities and skills.
Here’s how it works:
- Tackle your weaknesses. Working on the stuff you’re not as competent at forces you to pay close attention. This also breaks the comfort of automaticity.
- Embrace feedback. This could be from co-workers or even clients. This can be hard to hear because our egos don’t like being wrong. But if you’re never told about areas you need to improve, how do you work on your weaknesses? If someone is willing to give you feedback, it’s because they care enough to want you to become better.
- Tackle your weaknesses. Working on the stuff you’re not as competent at forces you to pay close attention. This also breaks the comfort of automaticity.
- Chase crazy goals. Once most people land their dream job, they just put life on cruise control and coast into the sunset. But experts are constantly pushing the boundaries of their abilities. PS: my crazy goal is that someday I’m going to travel the world to teach and write a book.
Easy, right?
That’s it!