In his book Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell introduced the concept that it takes approximately 10,000 hours to achieve expertise in any skill.
This concept has since been disputed, but it does serve as a reminder that whatever we attempt to achieve in life, success is usually not instantaneous.
It requires constant practice and an enormous amount of time and effort.
Intellectually, we know this, so why do we still hold on to the misguided belief that others find personal or professional success much faster or have it much easier than we do?
I was reminded of this recently when I was working on a project that seemed to be taking much longer than expected. Hours spent at the computer made it seem like time was standing still while racing ahead at the same time.
Catching myself going down the spiral staircase to my pity party, I had to examine what I was thinking.
Why can’t I do things faster?
Why is this so hard?
Why can’t I be like ___(insert the flavour of the day here.)
These thoughts were creating an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach.
Was it jealousy?
Envy?
I’m not exactly sure what it was, but what I was sure of was that I had strayed from my process.
The process I had taken many hours to research, practice and perfect, the process I call T.E.A.
(T.E.A. stands for: Thought creates Emotion that drives Action.)
Thought: Why can’t I be like ______?
Emotion: Jealousy, Envy.
Action: Inability to move forward.
I was comparing my work to the work of those who had put in the time. They had achieved their 10,000 hours while I had many more hours ahead of me. This reminded me of a quote from an article by Jon Acuff.
“One of the great temptations for us as leaders and dreamers is to compare the start of our new adventures to the middle of someone else’s. You work on your first book and pick up Max Lucado’s 14th book and say, “Mine isn’t as good.” You post your first blog post and look at Michael Hyatt’s 100th and think, “Mine is nowhere near as great as that.” You give your first speech and watch Ken Robinson’s 1,000th at TED and think, “I’m not great like that.” It’s true. You’re not. Yet.”
I was definitely guilty of comparing my beginning to someone else’s middle. (Self-awareness has a way of humbling you, unfortunately.)
When you’re able to separate the thought from the emotion, it makes it easier to see where the problem lies and reset yourself. This is something I’ve been practising for several years, so perhaps I’m someone else’s middle on this journey to self-improvement.
Thought: No one said it would be easy, but it better bloody be, worth it.
Emotion: Hopeful
Action: Keep going!
So whether you believe in the 10,000-hour rule or not, you can’t dispute the fact that practice is the way to achieve any worthwhile goal.
Putting in the time and energy will eventually get you to the place you want to go and if you stop now, you’ll never know how it feels to reach your destination. (At least that what they keep telling me!)
Onwards and Upwards!
(You can read my complete story here.)
p.s. I’m working on something new right now that I think you will like so stay tuned (do they still say that?)
