Today, I readjusted the layout of my bedroom and adjusted a "fitness corner" in the bedroom to remind myself to "exercise as soon as I get up" in the future. It was this small change that made me realize a problem.

Friends who have done squats know that a standard squat movement needs to be lowered to a position where the thighs are parallel to the ground (as shown in the figure below). I've tried this before when I was doing squats.

But it wasn't until I happened to see my squat in the mirror when I was exercising in the fitness corner today that I realized that my previous movements were not up to standard at all: I thought my thighs were parallel to the ground, but there was still a little distance, because I couldn't see how I did it and no one was there to guide me. In other words, my previous squat may be invalid because my movements are not up to standard.

The book Peak: How We Get Extraordinary Things expresses a point:

Self-study is not impossible, but it will be particularly difficult and not so effective in the early stage, because at this time you have not established the correct judgment standard for this field, and if you practice in the wrong direction, you will not notice it yourself. Therefore, we must establish a feedback mechanism to know which progress is effective, so as to manage the progress of skills in future exercises.

This is exactly the problem I encountered: because there was no feedback, I didn't realize that my movements were not standard and kept practicing in the wrong direction.

It also made me realize the importance of feedback. In fact, one of the principles of "deliberate practice" is to be able to establish a feedback mechanism and make corresponding improvements through feedback.

If there is a coach-led course, we can improve it through the coach's feedback, but there is not always the role of "coach" who can provide feedback in life. If there is no "coach" in what we are doing, we must find ways to actively create opportunities to get feedback, such as asking experienced friends to provide advice, consulting senior experts and making public inquiries in the circle of friends.

Suppose you want to support yourself by writing in the future, but you don't know what level to write in order to make money. You can start posting on this platform and get feedback through a series of parameters such as leaving messages, reading and liking, so as to improve and polish your writing ability.

To do this, I think the most important thing is to keep an open mind: if you don't want to show yourself, then others don't know how to give feedback, and naturally you lose the opportunity to grow through feedback.

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