“If you want to get somewhere, you have to walk toward it”

I keep hearing about this 10,000 hour rule. 10k hours invested into a particular cognitively complex activity/area or skill is what it takes to become exceptionally great at whatever it is you invest in. And it’s not just 10kh of isolated work. That 10k has feedback, constantly working to improve, repeated failures etc.

This rule… well, rules! It focuses on the effort that someone does to get somewhere, it shows that if placed in an environment that promotes growth, a motivated person can achieve great abilities.

I have a few assumptions for this to work though:

  • people have a great capacity to continually learn
  • people learn by actively trying things out and failing and trying again
  • some of us are blessed by being born awesome at some things but almost anyone can achieve those same abilities with enough focus and effort

Nature vs. Nurture

I can’t remember the actual documentary, but I watched something in the past about the trends of children born and given up for adoption. If their new parents were highly motivated successful people they were very likely to become very successful in their academics and mirror (at least in motivation and level of skill) their new parents. We’re all born with some intelligence, my heart learned to pump blood while I was in my mother’s womb. Newly born whales know to hold and wait to take their first breath until they reach the water’s surface. My point is yes, some people are born smart, but that’s only the first step. What really matters is the 10,000 hours.

The Final Hour

What is your sentence? What are your big dreams? What do you want to be awesome at? Place those things at hour 10,000. That’s where things will be great. But don’t let this dream prevent you from realizing it.

Don’t Let Perfect Get in the Way of Better and, for Crying Out Loud, Kill the Excuses

I was talking with my best friend today and we got onto the topic of people that we see that have huge dreams and potential, but don’t take steps towards realizing it. Two conclusions (that I assume speak truth) that came up are:

  • they justify inaction with excuses
  • they fear not realizing their vision (a vision that is grand and perfect)

My thoughts on my assumptions in more detail:

Excuses: Google calculator tells me 1 week = 168 hours. If you can’t find 10 hours (or at least 5 hours) a week to work on your dreams there’s a problem.  “I have no time” , “x-thing prevents me from doing this”, “I have a great idea I just need other people to join me”. Or the worst excuse of all “that’s not me”.  If these define who you are, take a reality check. You’re absolutely capable of finding 10 hours in a week to work on your dream and you have a great tool in your head that allows you to learn. Don’t worry you’ll have 158 hours left to do whatever it is you need to do.

Fear: Don’t let failure, or “not-so-great” stop you. Many times people have wicked-inspiring-dreams-of-awesomeness but they don’t work toward it because they have a fear that what they put together won’t match that dream. Don’t be scared… it definitely won’t. Put that level of perfection at hour 10,000. What you produce at hour 1 will be 1/10,000th of the quality, don’t worry, it’s part of the process. One of my favourite quotes is from Sir Ken Robinson in this TED Talk “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original”.

Step by Step

Now what will matter today is what you do in hour number 1. Take that first step towards 10kh – do an exercise. If you want to be an effective writer, go write something! It may not be good, it may be a failure, but that’s just all part of going to 10,000. Be bold, even if you’re not experienced at writing and you want to get better, write to the world! Keep a blog. That’s what I’m doing, and you’ve actually read this much. (Success!)

Don’t Save the Environment, Improve It… Especially Your Personal One

Find people who are aspiring toward the same goal… if you’re reading this you have access to tons of online communities, and I’m pretty sure if you can think up a goal, there’s someone on the net trying to get to the same point. Find people who will give you critical feedback and promote growth. If everyone you know will only tell you your stuff is good, that will make you feel good. But also seek others or reconnect with others that will tell you what they like and don’t like about your work and give their thoughts on how to improve.

I just did a Google search on that opening quote and saw no real results for an originator. So I’ll close by:
“If you want to get somewhere, you have to walk toward it” – Anthony C


Other stuff

The first time I came across the 10,000 hour rule was in this book:
This is your brain on music: the science of a human obsession By Daniel J. Levitin

I also found Malcolm Gladwell speaking about it in this interview.