Excerpt from Evotional (Mark Batterson):
I'm currently reading Malcolm Gladwell's new book, Outliers. Wanted to share a finding I've heard before. Basically, it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at anything! It doesn't matter whether it's athletics or academics. According to Gladwell, there are no "naturals." You have to put in the time. Generally speaking, the only difference between an elite person in any field and everybody else is usually a few thousand hours of practice time.
I find this study so empowering. Anybody can become an expert in just about anything. Obviously, you need a baseline of talent if you're talking about music or sports. But you can accumulate knowledge and become an expert.
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2 comments:
Jim, I'm looking forward to talking with you some more about this...too much to write. -pj
I can't get this out of my head. Just to put this in a little perspective as far as what exactly 10,000 hours means to an ordinary guy like me: if I decide to practice something for merely one hour per day, and am consistent and disciplined enough to do this for at least 300 days out of every year, then I could look forward to "expert status" in about 33.33 years! Or, if I poured my life into it like Yo Yo Ma did with the cello or like Jose Feliciano did with the guitar, practicing 12 to 14 hours per day, every day, then I could be a virtuoso in two to three years. This reminds me of a bulletin article from a couple weeks ago in which the question was asked, "What are you planning to delete from your schedule this new year in order to make room for the important things you want to add?" We all know how hard it is to begin some new regimen. Something's gotta give! (more when we talk...:) -pj
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