Stopping rule
Κανόνας σταματήματος
A sentence written before you need it, naming what would have to be true, and by when, for you to change method while keeping the goal. It is set in advance precisely because in the moment the same evidence reads as a reason to try harder at the same thing.
How to spot it
Say out loud which of the two you are defending right now, the goal or the road. If the road is the harder one to put on probation, it has stopped being a method and become a position.
The research behind the term
The term is not our invention. It comes from published research, and what follows is what that research found — our own synthesis of the published abstract, not a translation of the original.
Ericsson, K. A., Krampe, R. T., & Tesch-Römer, C. (1993). The Role of Deliberate Practice — doi:10.1037/0033-295X.100.3.363
What it found
- Elite performance is explained as the result of prolonged effort to improve under motivational and external constraints, not as an expression of innate talent.
- Even among top performers, individual differences are closely tied to the measured amount of deliberate practice.
- Characteristics once attributed to talent turn out to be the result of intense practice over at least a decade.
How it found it
A theoretical framework based on the analysis of expert performance, with systematic reconstruction of practice histories across different domains of expertise.
Practised in
The term does not stay a definition. It appears inside missions where the pattern happens in real time and you have to recognise it as it happens to you.
Six Weeks Into This Road
Four Months, and a Week to Decide
Sources
Every claim on this page maps to published research. The citations link to the original source.
- Ericsson, K. A., Krampe, R. T., & Tesch-Römer, C. (1993). The Role of Deliberate Practice — doi:10.1037/0033-295X.100.3.363