Your Brain's Secret "Declutter" Program (And Why It's Sabotaging Your Clients' Learning)
This solves a mystery we've all faced
Here's a puzzling situation every coach or consultant has faced:
You spend hours teaching someone a skill. By the end of the session, they're nailing it. You're feeling great. They're feeling great.
A week later? It's like the lesson never happened.
The Hidden Enemy of Learning
What's really going on here isn't about bad teaching or poor students. It's about how our brains are wired to forget.
Think of your brain like it has an anti-clutter program running in the background. Its job? Ruthlessly delete anything it thinks isn't important. And here's the thing – your brain decides what's "important" based on frequency.
I learned this lesson watching my daughter learn volleyball. My mom spent a day teaching her how to improve her serve. By the end of their session, she was doing great! My mom was thrilled with her progress.
But when game time came a week later? The skill had vanished. My mom wondered, "Did I even teach her anything?"
The Mass Practice Trap
This is what happens with what we call "mass practice" – practicing intensively for a short period and then... nothing. The skill fades dramatically over just a few days.
It's like we're in a fight against forgetting. And forgetting is winning because we're not sending the right signals to our brain about what's important.
How to Defend Your Skills
The good news? We can outsmart our brain's declutter program. The key is to practice a little bit every day rather than a lot all at once.
Think about it this way: You're not just learning a skill – you're defending it. Every time you practice, you're telling your brain, "Hey, this is important! Don't delete this!"
When you practice daily, even for just a few minutes, you're:
Reinforcing the skill before it starts to fade
Sending consistent "this is important" signals to your brain
Building more durable learning
What This Means for Course Creators
If you're creating courses or teaching others, this insight is crucial. Don't just teach the skill – teach students how to defend it.
That means:
Warning them about skill fade (it's not their fault, it's their brain's natural process)
Creating simple daily practice schedules
Following up to ensure they're maintaining their skills
Remember: Everything you practice that you don't continue practicing is lost. Sad but true. But with consistent, distributed practice, you can keep those hard-earned skills sharp and ready.
Two ways I can help you
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Still here? I love that. One thing you can do for me is reply to this email and share your own experience with skill fade. When I read your reply, it makes my day.