How To Have A Perfect Lesson

Aug. 23, 2019

In theory, every lesson is different.

And, theoretically, every lesson has the same chance of being great.

In real life, however, there’s one indicator that always guarantees a great lesson.

A detailed description of what to work on.

It works every time.

For example, at the beginning of each lesson, I always ask the student what they want to learn.

Most of the time, the answer is very vague.

“We can just work on everything,” is the most common.

“I just want to get better,” is common too.

“Whatever you think,” also happens a lot.

When I hear that, my adrenaline kicks in because we’re already up against a big obstacle before we’ve even started. If I get an answer like that, this hour is going to be hard work.

On the surface, it seems like there’s nothing wrong with those requests. Working on everything and wanting to get better are good things, right?

That’s the sneaky part. Those things are actually detrimental.

They’re detrimental because they’re vague.

For example, if the goal is to work on everything, how do you know if the lesson has been good?

Did we work on everything? Check.

Was it a good lesson? Probably not.

The “goal” was accomplished but nothing got done. We’re in exactly the same place as where we started. The student wasted time and money with nothing to show for it.

How about wanting to get better?

If that’s the goal, how do we know if the lesson has been good?

What does “better” mean? Did she hit her forehand better at the end of the hour? It went in sometimes, is that better? How do we know?

Did the strokes get “better”? Maybe, no one is sure.

Was it a good lesson? Hard to tell.

Same for “whatever you think.”

Did we work on whatever I thought? Check.

Was it a good lesson? Who knows?

Being vague leads nowhere.

But what if the student is specific?

“I’ve been having a hard time on low, short balls to my forehand. I’m always missing them long. Can you help me with that?”

Now, everything has changed.

The lesson plan went from mindless cruise control to specific and interesting.

Now we have a clear goal, and there are drills for that. With a specific improvement in mind, everyone’s mind is activated. Everyone is focused. We have a chance to do something that will resonate well beyond this 60 minutes.

Now there’s a chance someone’s life might change.

And at the end of the hour, we know how it went.

Did we work on the short, low forehand? Check.

Did it get fixed? Check.

Was it good lesson? Yes!

Every part of the lesson was useful, questions were able to be asked easily, and insight was easy to give and receive.

All the elements of a perfect lesson. And all of that stemmed from the initial specific answer.

It’s been said:

“A person of average intelligence with clear goals will run circles around a genius who is not sure what he or she really wants.” -Brian Tracy

If we stay vague, we may or may not reach our goal (probably not).

If we get specific, our goals become inevitable.

And it guarantees a perfect lesson every time.

My book is called The Inevitability of Becoming Rich, and you can find that here.