 Have you heard the saying, “If it was easy to do, then everyone would be doing it?” Well there's a lot of truth contained in that statement. According to the “success authorities” it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an EXPERT at something. Not “mastering” something – just becoming more proficient than the average person. Think about that for a moment. 1 year is only composed of 8,760 hours (on a non-leap year), and you still have to sleep, work, take care of the children, cook, shop, etc. To become an expert at something could literally take 2 or 3 years. With less time to dedicate, it could even take up to 5. The easiest way to put this in Perspective would be to look at a musician or athlete. It’s very easy to imagine that the more they practice their craft, the better they would get, correct? Studies show that you need to spend 10,000 hours PHYSICALLY practicing. That includes focusing the mind (and body) on becoming better and more proficient. For those familiar with The Game, you should know that the Dominant Force ALWAYS wins. So, let’s examine this a little deeper… If you’re not focused on becoming better at something, than you’re not exercising a Dominant Force – you’re just going through the motions, so to speak. Since thoughts and actions (effort) determine results, the result of you just “playing around” would extend the time necessary for you to become an expert. If you “played around” too much, it could literally take you way more than 5 years just to hit the expert level. This applies to anything you want to undertake. No matter what it is. If you want to be above average at it, you’re going to have to make sacrifices and dedicate your time to it. There’s NO way around it because we’re “trapped” in time by just being human. We fashion our days with time in mind. In the Hustler layer of The Game, this goes into the Law of 5. I’ve spoken about that before – you can check that post out [HERE].  The Law of 5 is a simple way to look at progress going from start (0%) to finish (100%). This 100% completion is divided by 5 which brings us to increments of 20% (5 multiplied by 20 = 100). You can look at this as 3 levels of COMMITMENT. Most people stop around the 20% to 40% mark. These are the short-term committed. Others make it to around 60%. These are the medium-term committed. The average person usually stops around this point or sooner. The most committed of course, complete what they started and reach 100% - we can call them the fully committed. Here’s a key for you: You can cut-down the time it takes to become an expert at something in a few ways: (1) Training under someone who is an expert or master themselves (2) Gaining knowledge and wisdom from reading qualified material, and then actually USING that information to gain your own understanding. Study alone isn’t enough! You have to apply what you learn. (3) Having an intention in mind before you even start. An intention is simply defined as: a final outcome In order to measure progress, you have to know what the end result is supposed to be. If you don’t know your end result, then how do you know when you’re done? When you reach that 100%? And here’s the real kicker; the odd truth… If you start out with knowing exactly what you want out of something (intention) you’ll actually perform better even with less practice! How does that work? Because you’re exercising Dominant Force. Your mind and actions are funneled in a single direction. You know what you’re after so when you practice, you know exactly what and why you're doing it. Your efforts are not scattered in many directions. Scattered effort breaks down a Dominant Force into a Weaker Force.  Want to become an expert at something? Then make up in your mind that you’re going to commit for the long-term. Then know exactly what you want out of the deal. Otherwise, what’s all the practice and sacrifice for? Why waste the time? If the vision and the intention (your final outcome - your reason why) doesn’t keep you motivated, then you’re not going to stay committed. It’s the lack of commitment that’s one of the biggest causes of total failure – not reaching 100%. Yes, you’re going to mess up. Yes, you’re going to have failures, but if you stop at any failure (or don’t learn from them), you’ll never hit 100%; and honestly, you don’t deserve to. Every gain in life has a price that must be paid. The price to become above average at anything is dedication and knowing what and why you’re going after it. When you step back and look at the bigger picture, this is all about making decisions. A natural power that we all have which is deciding where to place your Dominant Force. We make hundred of small decisions every day. Why not make a decision to commit to something that will change your life for the better? The only person stopping you, is you. In fact, you can make that decision right now! Are you going to get out of your own way? Until next time… NOW AVAILABLE!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
W. James Dennis
Author
|
RSS Feed
|