Hint, if you wanna be a dance master 🙂
The rule
So many of us are very familiar with Malcolm Gladwell’s ‘rule’ of 10,000 hours doing something required to become a master at a skill… Some have taken exception to that and say you can do it in 20 hours.
I think an important distinction is that Malcolm Gladwell is referring to becoming a true world class master, on such a level that you’re known for it – or more accurately when people think of whatever it is you do, they think of you.
The rule comes from Gladwell’s book Outliers: The Story of Success To become a chess grandmaster also seems to take about ten years. (Only the legendary Bobby Fisher got to that elite level in less than that amount of time: it took him nine years.) And what’s ten years? Well, it’s roughly how long it takes to put in ten thousand hours of hard practice. Ten thousand hours is the magic number of greatness.” — p. 41
Have you ever considered
What’s going on here? Is it the sheer repetition that makes them good at it? The experience gained from that much practice make the difference? Are they smart enough know what corners to cut or shortcuts to take without shortchanging their product or endresult with that experience?
I think yes to all of the above.
What’s going on here is that there comes a point when practising (ie doing) a skill that you move from moving through the motions to the skill becoming muscle memory | second nature.
This is where, I believe, you start to move toward that mastery mantle.
This is why elite military put such a priority on practising and drilling again and again.
Because when your skill moves to being muscle memory, it takes your decision making out of the equation.
We all have a limited amount of decisions we can make a day before it starts taking a toll on us both mentally and physically or we shut down. The more you can take this entirely out of the equation the faster you’ll be, happier you’ll be and less drain this skill will take on you.
Why it’s important;
When we’re talking about something like your wedding day; you want someone capturing it that’s REALLY good at what they do, there’s no redos 🙂
Take what you do, maybe a doctor, banker, landscaper, blogger, mom etc.
What you do is very important and serves a need, the better you become at doing what you do the better for those you serve (well duh) and happier you’ll be doing it.
This because of this little known thing called decision fatigue •click here to read an exhaustive study on it•
I don’t know about you, but I want my doctor, banker etc. to enjoy what they do so much that they’re excited to be helping me, and I’d want it to be second nature to them! I’d want the same out of my wedding photographer.
I may not have 10,000 hours yet, rough estimation is 3,000, but I’m working on it 😉
Life Hacks
Here’s some life hacks I implement into my own life to help with decisions, task management etc.
Hopefully they’re helpful to you
• Making my bed every morning, first thing.
Admiral William H. McRaven gave me this bit of advice in his 2014 University of Texas at Austin Commencement Address
McRaven, Navy Admiral & SEAL, said;
“If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another.”
So first thing I do is make my bed in the morning.
• After this, I workout. It’s not a matter of willpower, it’s a matter that I made that decision and now it’s what I do, end of story.
Exercise plays a major role in mood adjustment, in proving to yourself that you can conquer what the day has and be proactive about it.
• Daily devotional time is very important to me. I’m a frequenter of utmost.org
• I make a To Do list (oh, the horror) at night for the next day. I try to include only 3 or 4 big tasks for the day, then when those are done I can move on to lesser tasks. If there’s too many items on the list it’ll seem insurmountable.
• Try your best to not check email, FaceBook etc. until you’ve finished these first 3. Email, text messages and social media as a whole put you into a reactionary position to what others are saying, doing and asking of you. Being proactive is your best friend, being reactive is the enemy. So put off being reactive until you’ve gotten the important things done.
• When you feel the drain coming, break away and get to a new setting if possible. Take a minute for yourself and eat a chocolate covered almond or a protein bar. It’s a refocusing time.
Have I mastered life? Not even! But I’m getter better 🙂
What do you do to master your life?
What works for you, what doesn’t?
Comment below and join the conversation
