It is hard to maintain skills at peak performance. You need to either make an effort to improve or accept that your performance will decline at least a little bit from its peak.

To get improvement, it is not enough to use the skill. Some that many of us use every day like driving, reading or writing do not improve just by using them. The old saying, “practice makes perfect” is not really true. It is more accurate to say, “practice makes habit.” The more often you do something, the more likely you will start to do it automatically.

For skills in which improvement is important to you, deliberate practice is required. Perform the skill, analyze how you could improve it, apply the feedback to your next repetition. Repeat.

You must challenge yourself to improve, but sustainable improvement requires you to succeed most of the time. If you succeed every time you try, make it more challenging. If you fail more than 20% of the time, try something less challenging. Adjust as needed to keep your practice in the sweet spot.

Which of your skills do you value most? How much time will you invest in deliberate practice?