A corollary to “Choosing Difficult Ground” (published March 24, 2022) is something we learned in the Marine Corps, that is, rehearsing in suboptimal conditions. Say you’ve got the big basketball game coming up. Wouldn’t it be better to practice your free throws with hundreds of rivals booing and hissing at you, purposefully trying to distract you, rather than doing the work by yourself with your headphones on? Invite your friends to play the role of detractor and make it fun!
When you prepare for the worst possible scenario, any circumstance that is favorable instantly seems a lot more manageable, increasing your level of confidence and the probability of a successful outcome.
In training, we would often function with 45 minutes of sleep, weighed down by heavy gear, in the middle of nowhere, at zero dark thirty. With these conditions, we’d then recite a 5-paragraph order orchestrating the movements of an entire platoon or larger in order to acquire a target or accomplish a mission. It could be as big as that or as small as giving yourself half the time to take a practice quiz instead of a full 30 minutes. When the real quiz comes along, you’ll see it as a piece of cake!
Rehearse in suboptimal conditions to increase your chances of success.
One Ladder Project 