Specific Study, General Application

I received a question from a fellow coach the other day in my inbox. It was in reference to a talk I gave in Sydney in which I declared that maybe specific formalized environments like sport, entrepreneurship, and even hobbies like surfing or rock climbing are extremely effective vehicles to explore general truths. The argument I was making was that the commonality of these pursuits links them in ways that connect us all together.

I believe that at their heart, most everyone is seeking truth. Starting a business or playing a sport, then, can provide an environment that gives feedback to find progress in a general pursuit like learning one’s personal truth.

The question posed by the coach was, “I understand your idea what we can find general truths through specific pursuits, but what do you think about it working the other way around? Can we learn concepts generally and apply them to something specific?”

In my opinion, it’s through the specific development of these skills that makes for better transferability, at least when compared to learning the concept generally. Let me give you an example. Who best understands the idea of discipline, the basket weaver on his twentieth year in practice or the civilian who reads everything he can on the topic of discipline? Who would be more fit to express discipline in a new craft like taking up calligraphy?

Every day you come to the gym, you have the ability to use the specific (albeit arbitrary) practice of training to go down the wormhole of learning general skills like discipline, stoicism, patience, compassion, commitment, and countless others. Once you’ve earned an understanding of these concepts in fitness, I’d argue that you’d be more fit to try them out in new environments from your relationships to your career than if you tried to understand them from their general study.

Logan Gelbrich  

@functionalcoach