Outliers

I read in the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell that masters of skills have accumulated around 10,000 hours of practice. People like Bill Gates and professional sportsmen amongst many others have had practice, opportunity, luck and determination to get them to the pinnacle of their chosen fields.

I have thought about this dedication and with it the fact that most humans only use 10% of their brains potential. It would be amazing if we improved this figure considering how much we have done with such a small utilisation of our faculties.

Most of us are too lazy to commit so much of our time to one pursuit. But we will often bemoan the fact that we are not as successful as someone else. Our own inertia is the main prevention of our success and happiness. Let's be honest,  if it was easy to motivate ourselves and try hard everyday then we would all be Nobel laureates, millionaires and amazing athletes.

When I ponder what it takes to be great at a skill I think back to my first days as a gym instructor. We would practice the movements in front of a mirror to ensure we had proper alignment and repeat many times. Once we had this down pat we could add resistance and progress. But if we added weights to an incorrect movement pattern then we enforced misalignment and risked injury down the line.

In essence whatever the skill may be we must research the right way to do it. Then we must break it down to its most basic elements and practice these everyday. We can't run before we can walk and if we walk funny then we are screwed when we begin running.

I am by no means perfect at this process. I frequently skip steps to progress quickly. Despite my patience with others I have little for myself.  I do have friends that are sticklers for the specifics however. They follow and practice the basics because they know that these are the foundations on which all the advanced skills are based. They are admirable in their consistency, they work on the little things as much as the big things and they practice, practice, practice.

Am I jealous? Of course! But only because my own inertia and impatience want to skip the everyday routine. All I need to do is focus on the basics and give myself time. As I write this in my notebook I realise that I have to make a commitment to myself to practice little and often. To write each day in order to finish a book I started a long time ago and to practice each day for a certain dance next January.

I'll update you on my progress.

Tom :)