We all follow pretty much the same pattern with any skill we learn, from baking a pie to writing a descriptive paragraph. We typically start with a general idea and receive instruction before practicing to reach an acceptable level of performance, and then let it become automatic. However, once we reach this point, we often stop improving. People often misunderstand this because they assume that their continued baking or writing is a form of practice and that they are bound to get better at it as long as they keep doing it.

Research has shown that additional years of “practice” may not lead to improvement and can even result in a decline in performance. So what do you need if you are not satisfied with this automated level of performance? Purposeful practice turns out to be a successful approach.

Purposeful practice has several characteristics that set it apart from what we might call “naive practice,” which is essentially just doing something repeatedly, and expecting that the repetition alone will improve one’s performance.

First of all, purposeful practice has well-defined, specific goals. It is all about putting a bunch of baby steps together to reach a longer-term goal.

Furthermore, purposeful practice involves feedback. You have to know whether you are doing something right and, if not, how you may be going about it the wrong way. Without feedback—either from yourself or from outside observers—you cannot figure out what you need to improve on or how close you are to achieving your goals.

Purposeful practice also requires getting out of one’s comfort zone, which means trying to do something that you couldn’t do before. This is perhaps the most important part of purposeful practice. Sometimes you may find it easy to accomplish that new thing, and then you keep pushing on. At other times, however, you run into something that stops you cold. The best way to get past any barrier is to come at it from a different direction, which is one reason why it is useful to work with a teacher or coach.

Humans can be poor judges of their own ability. So, you might not be as good, or as bad, as you think you are. Psychologists have found the less expertise you have in something, the more likely you are to overestimate your competence in it. And in a digital era where self-assured social media influencers give you “life tricks”, and face-to-face conversation is more limited, this psychological phenomenon seems important to remember.

This concept is called the Dunning-Kruger effect, named after the psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger. Back in the 90s, they found a correlation between a person’s lack of skills and ability and a lack of awareness of lack of ability. They are ignorant to their own limitations. This plays out in various areas of life, such as in medical diagnosis. For example, Dunning told BBC Radio 4 that, one third of the time, doctors disagree with patients who self-diagnose using internet sources rather than seeing a medical professional. Whether it’s judging jokes, logical reasoning, or grammar, the pattern is the same: the less skilled you are, the more over-confident you are.

On the other side is intellectual humility. This means having a modest or low view of your importance or abilities. Elizabeth J. Krumrei-Mancuso, Professor of Psychology at Pepperdine University, found that a higher willingness to ac know edge cognitive limitations, and the ability to embrace diverse perspectives, are connected with a more accurate perception of intelligence.

How can we use this knowledge to help us in everyday life? Tenelle Porter, a psychologist at Rowan University, told the BBC that knowing this “opens us up to being intellectually humble, to admitting everything that we don’t yet know”. And current studies suggest that those with higher intellectual humility are more open to negotiating, compromising and exploring information.

So, embrace the unknown and remember: there’s always more to learn.

Skateboarding made its Olympic debut (首次亮相) at the Tokyo Olympics. Born in California in the 1950s, skateboarding is considered more of a lifestyle than a sport. Skateboarding doesn’t quite fit into any traditional sports box. But its presence at the Tokyo Olympics brought a great sense of playfulness and individuality to the sport world’s biggest stage.

Skateboarding presents so many more options than people typically have in sports. In this way, skateboarding is nearly impossible to define. But ask a skater at any level what skating means to them, and you’ll get a similar answer: What attracted them to the sport was freedom and creativity, not competition or being the best.

Every skateboarder has their own unique style. There are no rules in skateboarding no standards, no fixed structure—even at the Olympics. According to Mimi Knoop, professional skateboarder and head coach for the US Olympic skateboard team, judges score the athletes based on trick progression, difficulty level and originality.

“We don’t have points for certain tricks because we want to stay away from that to keep it a little more creative,” Knoop said

If you watched the Olympics, the way the skateboarders interacted (互动) with each other was often quite different from other athletes. Competitors at some events, like gymnastics or swimming, typically kept a certain distance from their competitors. But skateboarders were enjoying each other’s company and lifting each other up.

Sports agent Yulin Olliver said, “Skateboarding as a sport and lifestyle is self-sufficient (自立的). There’s no need for coaches, teams or organized competitions. Those things exist in skateboarding, of course, but not out of necessity. As long as there are individuals who skateboard and find joy in doing so, the culture of skateboarding will remain strong.”

“It’s almost like the Olympics needed skateboarding.” Olliver said, “not the other way around.”