Secrets from the New Science of Expertise

Calling anything life changing should be limited to only the best of the best so the term isn't devalued. However, I feel it's safe to call this book life changing.

Peak looks at people who are the best of the best at what they do and examines what they do differently in practice than others. And patterns emerge in the ways that they practice. So many spend hours and hours practicing things without getting better because they don't actively engage in what they're doing or try to improve on whatever part of the skill they struggle with most.

The authors came up with the term deliberate practice: the process of learning to recognize and emulate existing models of elite performance, through active trial-and-error, regular expert feedback, and self-motivated resilience. Deliberate practice is necessarily painful, but rewarding for those who keep at it. Basically the "genius" gene doesn't exist, and having a genius gene isn't the only way to become an expert or elite performer. We are all born with the potential to excel in many fields. What derails most of us from excellence isn't any lack of innate ability; it's the fact that we give up in response to early failures and/or external discouragement. By applying this understanding to the ways we raise kids and train professionals, we might unleash into society a great deal of otherwise-untapped human potential.

This is a book I would recommend if you've ever hit a plateau in any activity you do. This is the way off that plateau.