Learning to drive is mostly learning to notice things before they happen. Plenty of skills work the same way.

CREATIVITY

WHAT THIS MEANS

Beginners react and experienced people anticipate. Behind the wheel the real work is reading the brake lights four cars ahead, the gap that is about to close, the kid near the kerb, so that most of what would have been an emergency never becomes one. The same shift happens in sport, in a kitchen, in a job: you stop handling problems and start seeing them arrive.

Wherever you are learning something, give attention to what comes just before trouble. In a game, what tells you the opponent is about to move. On a shift, what the room looks like twenty minutes before it gets busy.

A QUESTION TO SIT WITH

Where could you start spotting trouble a few seconds earlier?

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