We have all had times in our life when things just worked. Whether you manage to bust out a term paper in record time, get lost in coding, or have an amazing night out on the town, sometimes "flow" or "state" is a low hanging fruit. These times are great - they provide great motivation and make you feel like a million dollars.

But you can't rely on these times. If you only apply yourself in times when you feel amazing and flake out whenever you're not feeling perfect, you are leaving a lot on the table and you will not progress as quickly as you could.

When you are in state, it is enjoyable and you have a good time. But I don't think that you can achieve a high level of metacognition. Part of why things work so well when you are in a state of flow is that you are out of your head. But when you are out of your head, it is much more difficult to evaluate your mental processes in real time. You can't identify exactly what goes your head during a successful session. Without identifying it, it is difficult to reproduce it. You end up remaining a slave to chance and external influences.

This is where deliberate practice comes in. Deliberate practice means that you make an effort to consciously push your boundaries. That means you get out there and take action, even when - especially when - you don't feel like it. It will feel clunky, it will feel unnatural, and almost invariably the results you get will be worse than those days where everything flows so easily.

But this is where you learn best. When you are consciously uncomfortable, those metacognitive processes are firing. It allows you to identify what works and what doesn't - and what you were thinking/doing at the time. With this information you can re-evaluate, adapt, and re-test. Each successive interaction builds on the last. You can rapidly progress, cutting away dead weight and keeping what works.

Ask any of the mPUAs, and I guarantee you they had to push themselves through times where it felt like too much hard work. But this is not just an important concept for pickup. It is an important concept for life. Look at the masters of any field. The path to success is not lined with candy and bacon. It takes hours and hours of diligent, deliberate practice to achieve mastery.

There will always be days when things are easy. When these days come, celebrate and enjoy. But when things are hard, when you are feeling your worst - that is when the true learning opportunity presents itself.

Context: I arrived in town tonight a little too early, and things are dead quiet. I could easily just call it a failed mission and head home. But instead, I am going to tough it out and put myself out there, and do what I can with the limited options available. This post is a synopsis of the thoughts that have been running through my head in the last hour or so.

Let me know if you think this is actually good advice or just delusional, self-motivational rambling :)

FOLLOW-UP: For anyone interested, it stayed really quiet all night. I ended up heading to a bar and watching a football match. As look would have it, I struck up conversation with a guy who happened one of the owners of the bar. I also met and made friends with some of the bar staff. I made no targeted approaches since there was no one around. Regardless, I had a great time (which is the most important thing), and it can't hurt being friendly with the bar staff! Definitely glad I stuck it out.