I spent last weekend playing, talking and coaching football. As I have said before, coaching football is one of the best things I do.

Now I am stepping up a gear and (just) out of my comfort zone by studying for my UEFA C coaching licence.

It was intense, challenging and inspiring in equal measure. I didn’t think about anything else from 9-5 on Saturday and Sunday. I struggled to sleep on Saturday night with my head swimming with ideas. On Sunday morning I woke up knackered but so excited about the day ahead.

How many times does that happen to you?

It is rare in life, work or with our hobbies that we push ourselves in this way. Yet this is where the greatest increase in skill and competency occurs.

I’ve written about deliberate practice before giving the example of how you might prepare for a speech (hint: make your practice as near to the actual event as possible).

My course experienced this by devising, then coaching, practice exercises to solve a particular problem or reach an outcome while under the watchful eye of our coach developer team.

There were some other fundamentals that were familiar to me such as keeping things simple or communicating complex ideas or putting yourself in the shoes of your audience.

But the weekend was so rewarding because those teaching us made sure what we did was hard enough. It was just about manageable.

Not too hard that we switched off. Not too easy that we were bored. Always hard enough that we felt energised and motivated.

It was a truly immersive experience which helped me go from answering, “are you a UEFA C football coach?” with “no, certainly not” to “not yet”.

Now ask yourself, “what do you want to get better at?”

How can you challenge yourself with goals during practice or learning sessions that just go beyond your current skill level?

Find those points of challenge and progress will follow.