Mr Anders Ericsson, the expert on expertise, explains some key factors that might be stopping you from reaching your full potential .

In his new book Peak: Secrets From The New Science Of Expertise (already out in the US and released on 21 April in the UK), professor of psychology Mr Anders Ericsson proposes a somewhat contentious notion: there is no such thing as natural talent. In fact, says Mr Ericsson, the very idea that people are born with aptitudes for certain things obscures the intriguing truth – that the ability of any given individual to acquire and perfect any given skill is almost limitless. And he has the evidence to back it up. For more than 20 years, Mr Ericsson has been studying expert performers from a range of disciplines, from athletics to music to the medical profession, to the point where he has become renowned as the world expert on expertise. In Peak, he explains that it’s not so much ability or intelligence that separates the very best from the mediocre, but the degree to which they engage in what he calls “deliberate practice”. To discover just why this is so (and what you can do to set up your own deliberate practice routine), you’ll have to read the book. But as a taster, MR PORTER asked Mr Ericsson to outline some of the key pitfalls that commonly beset would-be improvers.

If you’re trying to get better at something, you need to know when you’ve improved, otherwise, what’s the point? But to do this you need to focus on things that can be objectively measured. Like your 5km running time. Or your sales figures. In short, you should sweat the small stuff. Mr Ericsson uses the idea of dreaming of fame as a counter-example.

“Fame, to me, doesn’t really reflect a specific performance that you would achieve,” he says. “Some famous people are performers and they are basically the ones that we look up to. But only once you have a superior performance can you ask, how did this performance come about and what are the things this individual did?”

A lot of success stories in popular culture, says Mr Ericsson, focus on the idea of a natural-born genius who comes out of nowhere and, by themselves, develops exceptional skills. In truth, there’s usually someone giving them a helping hand.

“The idea that you’re basically going to be able to figure out how to get better by yourself… I don’t think it’s impossible. But I certainly think it’s a very ineffective way to get better, especially for adults who may have the resources to seek out a teacher or a mentor. If you identify somebody whose performance you really admire and approach them, I think there’s a very exciting proposition here. Especially when they’re starting to approach retirement, such experts might feasibly be quite interested in working as teachers and coaches of other people.”

Yes, to be an expert, you have to spend a lot of time training. But that doesn’t mean if you spend a lot of time training, you will become an expert. It’s more important to be fully engaged in what you’re doing, says Mr Ericsson, than it is to spend all day doing it. If you’re feeling distracted, you should take a break. Otherwise you might actually get worse.

“We see it with long-distance runners and other people who are doing things for long periods of time,” says Mr Ericsson. “They come up with coping methods that will actually decrease the speed with which they can run. You’re adapting to sub-level performance as opposed to raising your performance in a limited period of time.”

A key part of getting better is challenging yourself. But if the challenge is too high, it’s not going to help you. The best way to improve performance is to ramp up the difficulty of what you’re doing gradually, before moving onto the next step.

“I think most people realise that if you’re going to run a marathon and you haven’t been running… if you go out and run for four hours, that’s not a good start for your career as a marathon runner. You’re so sore that you can’t do anything for two weeks and you’re totally discouraged. But if you go out for 15 minutes and jog, then basically increase it in a way that’s consistent with how you feel your performance is improving, that’s the kind of plan that is going to be successful.”

It may sound obvious, but few people build the idea of improvement into their day-to-day routines, particularly in professional settings. By making a commitment to improve and setting some measurable goals, says Mr Ericsson, you will already be making a big difference to your working life.

“If you look at performing violinists, they probably practise 95 per cent of the time and perform 5 per cent of the time,” says Mr Ericsson. “Whereas most people at work, if they can have 5 per cent of their time trying to get better, that’s probably a high number for many professions. Once you make that commitment to improve, I think your job will just become much more interesting.”