Recently I’ve been spending a lot of time contemplating what I need to do to become better in certain areas of my life. Namely work, the gym, BJJ and Japanese. Do the answers lie in books? In videos? In talking about it with people? No, the only way to become better at these things is to do more of the thing itself. Nothing counts more than experience does. Whether that’s time in-front of a keyboard, time spent with a barbell, using the language, or rolling on the mats. The auxiliary actions of reading books and watching videos will propel you onwards faster, but they are in no way a substitute for actually doing.