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10,000 HOURS! How to Tap The Awesome Power Of Passion, Practice, and Persistence
Copyright (c) 2006-2012 Bruce Elkin
Did you know that participants in the Turin Olympic ceremonies practiced their routines 11,000 times?
Or that, in the year leading up to Turin, figure skaters practiced each element in their programs 14,000 times?
Similarly, Buddhist monks who tested off the scale for inner peace and compassion sat in meditation for over 10,000 hours?
10,000 hours! Why?
Because they know there is awesome power in practice and persistence.
Practice Plus Persistence Equals Mastery
The source of that power is passion.
To tap into it, you have to practice, and, to practice, you have to love what you do.
Passion alone is not enough. Vision without action deteriorates into daydreaming. Without persistent practice, passion fades.
So how best do we integrate passion, practice, and persistence?
By developing mastery in what matters most to us.
Mastery is key to consistently producing high-level results. And practice is key to growth and mastery. So is persistence.
In Aikido, the master is the one who stays on the mat five minutes longer than anybody else.
Powered by passion, persistent practice eases you along the learning curve until you hit that sweet spot where the curve starts to rise sharply, and results come easily.
Although rich in natural talent, Wayne Gretzky, the "Great One" of hockey fame, was first on and last off the ice from the time he started playing until he retired.
The Great One translated his natural talent into real and lasting success through passion, practice, and persistence.
You can do the same.
Want To Get Lucky?
Not only do practice and persistence tap passion's power and enable you to create successful results. They also make you lucky.
Legendary golfer Ben Hogan was interviewed after winning a major tournament.
"Mr. Hogan," said a reporter, "You were under amazing pressure in this tourney yet you consistently hit remarkable shots. How do you do it?"
"Hmm," said the laconic Hogan, "I suppose I'm just lucky."
"Just luck?" said the reporter. "But you practice more than any player on the tour."
"Well," said Hogan, "I guess the more I practice, the luckier I get."
Hogan loved golf. Gretzky loved hockey. Enduring successes in all fields come from people who love what they do enough to persist in their practice until they achieve mastery, grace, and excellence.
What DO you love?
The Most Painful, Creative Act Of Life
What brings you most fully alive and engaged? What gives you juice? What do you MOST want to create?
If answering these questions is difficult, you are in good company.
Business expert Sir Geoffrey Vickers said, "Learning what to want is the most radical, the most painful, and the most creative art of life."
Three reasons get in the way of knowing what you truly want.
First, we focus on what is second, third, or tenth most important because we're afraid to fail at what's most important.
Second, when asked about passion, many are quick with "YEAH, BUT..." comebacks.
People say, "I know what I am passionate about, BUT I do not know how to do it."
Or, "I do not have enough time. Or money. Or confidence."
Or, often, "Yes, I want that, BUT somebody or something always gets in my way."
Is that you? Or someone you know?
If so, a third reason knowing what to want is difficult might be because you often work out of a "fixed" mindset.
If you operate out of a fixed mindset, you may dismiss what you want most as a pie-in-the-sky impossibility. "Yeah, that'd be great, but . . . I could never do it."
The motivational energy created by the "Yeah!" is instantly negated by the "but...."
With no energy, there is not action, no results, and no success.
You Mindset And Success (Or Lack Of It)
In her new book, MINDSET: The New Psychology of Success, Stanford professor Carol Dweck identifies 2 different mindsets (or belief structures) that play critical roles in whether we succeed at what matters to us, or not.
The Fixed Mindset
People working with a FIXED mindset believe their intelligence, talents, and ability to create results that matter are fixed.
You have them, or you do not. Nothing can be done to change fixed traits.
Because they believe their traits and abilities are fixed, people with fixed mindsets focus on proving they are talented by demonstrating what they do well.
They hide weaknesses. They are afraid to fail or look foolish, so they close themselves to practice and learning. They fail to grow their talents and abilities.
They fail to achieve the success the desire.
The Growth Mindset And Success
People with a GROWTH mindset believe their intelligence, talents, and ability to create can be developed through passion, practice, and persistence.
They do NOT have to prove they are smart or able. They are not afraid of looking foolish if it will lead to learning.
They risk failing because they know growth and change are possible, and failure is useful feedback.
For people with a growth mindset, it is not about grooming an image. It is about learning what it takes to create what they most want.
Growth mindset people are passionate about the results they want to produce, AND passionate about learning how to create them.
They believe passion-driven practice and persistence lead to improved abilities, increased talent, and successful results.
Here is the good news. You can learn to work from a growth mindset.
If you embrace a growth mindset, you will likely create success beyond that which you have been able to create so far.
Embracing A Growth Mindset
Managers who learned the growth mindset in 90-minute workshops succeeded in shifting from fixed to growth mindsets, and sustained their results.
In workshops, they read an article and watched a video about how the brain changes and grows with learning. Then they were asked to do 4 things:
List 3 reasons why it is important to think that ability can be developed;
Recall an area where you developed an ability, and explain how you made that change;
Email a hypothetical protégé about how ability can be developed, and
Bring to mind times when you saw someone learn to do something you did not think the person could do, and think about how that happened, and what it means.
If you want to succeed at what matters, I suggest you try these four techniques yourself. And do not just do them once or twice and quit.
Keep at it until you notice yourself changing, and then keep at it until the growth mindset becomes your new go-to habit.
When it does, you will be able to tap into the awesome power of passion, through practice, and persistence. You will be able to harness your time and effort in the service of your deepest desires and highest aspirations.
Confident that you can learn what it takes to make your dreams a reality, you will be much more likely to put in the persistent practice to successfully do so.
I doubt the success you long for will take 10,00 hours. But if it does, it will be worth it.
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