Be Your Best

Todd Gifford – Success Coach

I just finished a pretty interesting book called “Outliers: The Story of Success” by Malcom Gladwell.  Recommended reading by the way, or listen to the audio version read by the author.  It reads a little bit like a novel of short stories, so not totally a business book per se.  Anyway, I reference this book because he talks about something throughout the book that I have read and heard from other key figures and experts as well.  It is: how many hours of focus does it take attain ‘mastery’ of something significant.  The consensus I always see referenced is 10,000 hours.  Obviously this is a nice round number, but successful people from many different perspectives all seem to agree that it takes about 10,000 hours of focus at a particular thing to achieve a mastery level competency.  I have seen this referenced with respect to martial arts (which I am not involved in — I just read books that talk about or reference successful martial arts people), mastering playing musical instruments like the piano or whatever, or attaining a professional level in a sport.  In fact, in the Outliers book as well as from other sources, they imply that investing 10,000 hours of focus nearly guarantees you will achieve mastery level of the thing you are focused on.  One big point Malcom Gladwell makes in the Outliers book is that it is pretty much all about ‘practice’ time (as well as some luck in terms of having exposure to the ‘thing’ you will ultimately master), and not about ‘natural ability’.  He makes a very strong case with specific well-known examples.

I started to think about my own situation, and ask myself: have I invested 10,000 hours (or anywhere close to that) in my lifetime to any one discipline/sport/hobby in order to master it?  At first, I was coming up with ‘no way’.  I did the math….10,000 hours = 4 hours per day, every day, for 6 years 10 months, OR 2 hours per day, every day, for 13 years 8 months, OR 1 hour per day for 27 years 5 months.  These are obviously averages, but they give you a good idea of what 10,000 hours really means.   To be fair, ‘Mastery’ by no stretch means ‘perfect’ — in fact, the masters at various sports, musical instruments, or other disciplines consistently say they are working harder than ever to get even better at what they are already considered a master at.

After I looked at this for a while, I did start to find some things that I have invested nearly 10,000 hours in, or getting in the range of or above 10,000.  I have been married almost 24 years now.  Have I put in 10,000+ hours — yes.  Have I achieved mastery at our marriage?  Depends on who you ask!  Hockey.  My favorite sport.  I have been playing organized hockey consistently since I was 6 years old.  Certainly don’t play every day, but in adding up the total hours invested in practice and games, I think I have somewhere in the 5,000 hour range.  I have not achieved what I consider mastery level or obviously not the professional level…yet!  But then again, I have not put in 10,000 hours yet.  How about fatherhood — definitely have 10,000+ hours invested.  I absolutely have achieved mastery in this area…according to me.  From a business perspective, I have put well over 10,000 hours into essentially the same career role multiple times over.  Mastery achieved?  Again, probably depends on who you ask!  Always trying to improve.

Why should I care about this 10,000 hour concept?  I guess it may come down to how much you want to achieve ‘mastery’ level at various aspects in life.  After reflecting on my own situation, I have ended up, for whatever reason, being about average at many things and not quite mastering a couple of others vs. reaching true mastery level at any one specific thing.  However, I have to say that the areas where I have invested and focused thousands of hours of practice and time on, I get tremendous reward from — whether I have achieved the ultimate ‘mastery’ level or not.  Putting in thousands of hours into anything you choose basically guarantees huge personal reward and satisfaction.  And, just the mental perspective of  committing that you are going to invest thousands of hours delivers the same long term reward.  Essentially, you are on the way towards mastery, and you know it.  You can feel it the whole way.

This is something I am paying more attention to with respect to how I spend my time and energy, as well as how I coach my kids.  Knowing that mastery is attainable by anyone, in any given endeavor (given enough passion), is an important principle to remember.  And, knowing that committing to thousands of hours of ‘practice’ is the most important determination of reaching mastery level at any given venture is a simple, but largely overlooked, concept.

Be Your Best,
Todd D. Gifford