Advice for Mid- and Later Career: Lifelong Learning

Achieving and maintaining expertise is a “lifelong quest” (Ericsson, 2004, p. S79). Top performers in music and athletics engage in daily deliberate practice throughout their entire careers.

One of the most robust findings from decades of research on expertise across a wide range of fields is that work experience itself is not sufficient for advancing beyond competence. Rather, continuous deliberate practice is required for achieving and maintaining expert performance (Ericsson, 2006). Ericsson (2008) summarized this finding, “Once a professional reaches an acceptable skill level, more experience does not, by itself, lead to improvements” (p. 992).