I was listening to Malcolm Gladwell today, on my way to pick my son up from school. In “Outliers”, Malcolm makes a strong case against the common notion that successful people are born with superior strengths and talents.
As I listened to him read his first chapter, he shared the recent discovery that, in order to become a world-class anything, you need to clock about 10,000 hours of focused practice time.
This resonated with what my mentor, Greg, told me: to become a world-class speaker, I’d need to speak for 10,000 hours. So he recommended that I approach every single interaction like a speech. Practice every time I speak.
That’s right, to become a Master – among the very best in the world – I would need to put in my time. Working out the math, I’d need to practice an average of 3 hours a day, for 10 years.
One way to interpret this information is to feel encouraged. If I want to be the best in the world, all I need to do is practice 3 hours a day for the next ten years.
Another interpretation, of course, is to feel discouraged. 10,000 is a big number and sure looks like a tremendous amount of time.
But my interpretation is different. When I hear this, I think, “Here’s another way to test whether an activity I do is my true passion.”
If I’m soul-searching and trying to find my passion, or decide which of many candidates is my #1 passion, I can simply ask myself:
Would I be able to do this activity with joy and/or passion for 3 hours a day x 10 years? Or 5.5 hours a day x 5 years?
It’s an interesting way to uncover one’s inner purpose and passion.
What do love doing so much that you’d look forward to spending this kind of time doing it?
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