Reading Mark Sanborn’s book, “Encore Effect“, has been a meaningful experience. I was sent this book through Librarything.com Early Readers Program, several months ago, but due to mission demands am just now catching up on some of the reading I have put off.
Encore Effect is subtitled: “How to Achieve Remarkable Performance in Anything You Do.” The book is built around the concept of being so remarkable in everything you do that those who see you ask to have you back.
In the author’s introduction, Sanborn writes;
“I believe that a worthy goal in life is to have people shouting for more of whatever it is we do that is really important and matters to us. The world is desperately looking for people who make such a difference, who produce memorable results, who have a positive impact on others. Such “performers” make themselves indispensable. Whatever their stage, they shine.”
There are many lessons to be learned for this book. To highlight three, I have chosen three that most inspired me.
The first lesson is the “Ten-year rule”: the idea that it takes at least ten years to reach what is considered a world-class performance. This is inspiring to me to know that as I am still young in my Army Career, I can slowly approach remarkable world class performance possibly in the middle of my career. What I must do, however, is to focus my attention on being world-class in one thing rather than several things. My passion for the Army Chaplaincy makes this the obvious choice for my attention.
The second lesson is the imperative need to practice the performance. Sandburg writes:
“Few of us have time. We’re already busy. That means we need to make time for the important things each day, and practice is critical if you want to turn in a remarkable performance.”
The idea of taking time during the day to practice my craft is interesting to me. I need to practice speaking. I need to practice counseling. I need to practice writing. These are my core performance–this is what the world sees. I, of course, need to maintain an understanding of theology and military tactics–but these are areas that give substance to my performance. The performances themselves need to be practiced.
The third lesson learned from the book is a combination of the first two–being the need to polish. This is practicing properly–constantly refining the performance for at least ten years, perfecting the performance to be world class.
At first, as I looked at this book a sense of underwhelming came over me. Â However, these thee lessons learned were enough to inspire me. As I read, and now recall, there are many little lessons learned from this book. I’m happy to have read it.
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This post is a repost of a post titled “Book Review: Encore Effect” in January 2009.