A very wise mentor once told me, ‘If you put in the time, you can’t help but get better. There is no way around it, perfection comes from repetition.”
This quote gives rise to several important personal reflections, and perhaps more than a few regrets. They are all integrated by the central theme that is time. Time, a quantity measuring duration, one that is absolute, and utterly indifferent to you and I. We can’t change time, but we can leverage it and appreciate it. I think the best contemporary work I’ve ever read in relation to the effects and the dynamics of time is the work of Malcolm Gladwell. In his book, Outliers, he coined what came to be known as the ‘10,000-Hour Rule’. By researching eminently successful people in the areas of music, athletics and industry, he found a correlation not to intelligence or ambition, but to time on task. The ‘10,000-Hour Rule’ was born – it takes 10,000 as a practitioner to reach significant mastery. Elite performers (including Tiger Woods, Bill Gates and even the Beatles) get their time on task – and they get it early! 10,000 hours spread out would average some 90 minutes a day over 20 years. Elite performers get it done far, far sooner.
What does this have to do with my mentor’s simple truth of you can’t help but get better? I take away a couple of lessons on process here. First, it makes me think about where I am in relation to the river of time and the 10,000-hour rule. In my professional practice, I’ve got my 10,000 hours and tens of thousands more. On the guitar or beginning to play soccer at 45, not only am I way shy of the requisite 10,000 hours, given my age and life expectancy I’ll never get them! There, I’ve said it. I’ll never play music as well as Segovia, or soccer like Messi.
A second lesson based upon my coaching and teaching practice is that some of us want 10,000 hours of mastery from only 1,000 hours of practice. It’s a rush to success that perhaps we all suffer, and it’s really just simple math. We’re kidding ourselves, but there is a silver lining – no matter where we are on the timeline, we can enjoy growth. That icing on the cake is that with more time applied to an instrument, to a sport or whatever professional process we aspire to, we can’t help but get better with every minute of time invested. Repetition is requisite to mastery, and we grow with every rep.
Let’s do something different – we can’t help but get better:
- Do the math – consider one competency that is very well developed for you … consider and communicate to others how much time on task you already have invested. Reach back to someone behind you on the same path.
- Set a target – pick another competency you’re not yet known for … articulate in writing how you will get the repetitions you need for full mastery. Set a target date for it too, no matter how long it takes, you will get better with each
-Don Brown
don@donbrown.org
Don Brown dedicates his career to ‘helping people with people’ in leadership, sales and customer service. Bilingual and experienced at the executive and line-level alike, you see the results of his work across dozens of industries, including brewing, automotive, airline, banking and medical equipment.
Speaking, writing, coaching and selling to the best – Ford Motor Company, Anheuser-Busch, United Airlines, Harley-Davidson, Jaguar Cars, Hilton Hotels and many, many more – Don takes great pride in long-standing customer relationships (some running well over twenty years).
