Top psychologist says there's only one way to become the best in your field

As a teenager in Sweden, Anders Ericsson used to play chess against one of his classmates, a boy considerably worse at the game than Ericsson. Every time they'd play, Ericsson would trounce him.

Then one day, the classmate beat him.

Ericsson wanted to know: What exactly had the boy done to improve his performance so drastically?

Though Ericsson didn't realise it then, the question would come to define his life's work. In the years that followed his defeat at the hands of his classmate, Ericsson found himself less interested in improving at chess and more interested in learning how people improve at anything.

Today, Ericsson is a professor of psychology at The Florida State University, where he specializes, among many topics, in the science of peak performance. He is, in other words, an expert on experts.

According to Ericsson's research and logic, the sole reason you aren't a virtuoso violinist, or an Olympic athlete, or another kind of world-class performer, is that you haven't engaged in a process he calls "deliberate practice."

In general, according to Ericsson, deliberate practice involves stepping outside your comfort zone and trying activities beyond your current abilities. While repeating a skill you've already mastered might be satisfying, it's not enough to help you get better. Moreover, simply wanting to improve isn't enough — people also need well-defined goals and the help of a teacher who makes a plan for achieving them.