10,000 Hours to Mastery
It’s been said that it takes 10,000 hours to truly master a skill. That’s a really long time. 10,000 hours divided by 40 hours a week (your average work week in the US) is 250 weeks, which ends up being ~4.8 years if you don’t take any vacation. So let’s safely round up to 5 years. So 5 years working full time (40 hours a week) is about what it takes to reach mastery.
That’s a long, long time. And a lot of hours.
And to be honest, I don’t have that kind of patience. Sometimes when I think about those kind of hours, I get overwhelmed. 10,000 hours!?! 5 Years!?!? It’s going to take FOREVER! *insert crying and sniffling
If you’re anything like me, then you may be something of a perfectionist who feels like they need to be good at everything they try immediately. (Cue soundbite from popular TikTok/Instagram video, “If it’s not right on the first try it’s a learning opportunity and I get to try again.” - “If it’s not right on the first try, it’s trash, I’m trash, and I am never trying that again.”)
If that resonates with you, well I have a secret for you.
I’ve just learned that it takes only 100 hours to achieve a level of proficiency that will more or less put you ahead of 95% of the population. As my husband and I were discussing this ground breaking news, he told me it won’t make you the best, but it will put you ahead of 95% of people. And I, in return, said, “I don’t have to be the best, I just have to be better than you.” He laughed.
Now, that may sound harsh, but hear me out. I don’t have to be as good as Michelangelo or Da Vinci, I just have to be able to do something most people can’t do in order to provide value. Especially at this point in my career, as a beginner, I just want my work to be good enough. Of course I want it to be the very best that it can be, but I recognize that my best will change over time and my best will become better as I hone my skill. Right now my best is good. If I keep working at it, my best will be better. And the best way to hone my skill is to finish projects.
I’m learning a lot about not letting perfect be the enemy of good enough and consequently done, shipped, and on the market. (I.e. hopefully generating passive income). Don’t get me wrong, I love writing and making art, but it’ll be nice to make some money at it as well. I hope to be able to transition away from healthcare into a role as a full time creative some day in the not too distant future. But I’ve got bills to pay and doggies to feed, and you can’t buy groceries with exposure. But I digress.
100 hours isn’t that much in the grand scheme of things. 100 hours divided up over 365 days comes out to roughly 18 minutes a day. That’s so much less daunting than staring at a whole 10,000 hours.
Not everyone can will write a book. Not everyone will take the time to get good at drawing and painting. If I take the time to become better than the average person, then I have a much better chance of exchanging my services and goods for monies from people who have invested their time and energies into other hobbies. I’ve written about what I like to call Success Amnesia before. This is very similar to that. I tend to only look at the people ahead of myself on the bell curve and wind up as much discouraged as inspired. But I forget about everyone else behind me on the bell curve who hasn’t put any time into mastering the skills that I have. (Which is awesome! It takes all types of skills to run a society.) For example I know nothing about music, people who can compose and sing and play an instrument are like wizards to me. I will gladly pay for their skill. Or the skill of a plumber, or a carpenter. You see where I’m going with this.
Now, I’m not saying you shouldn’t strive for hitting your 10,000 hours of mastery. But if it helps you get started to think of things in smaller bite sized chunks, then by all means, take the bite size! Setting out to tackle 100 hours is cake compared to feeling like you have to take on the whole 10,000. Think of it as your first segment on the trail of the mountain of mastery. Or the first notch in your skill tree for people who are into that kind of thing. You can even break up an overarching skill (Art) into several sub-skills, it helps you stay on track. Working your way through the skill tree by mastering subskills could be fun and rewarding and help you develop in areas of your chosen hobby/profession where you are lacking. (Under the Art tree, think of subskills of shading, composition, color theory, etc.) I’m all about making things as fun and nerdy as possible.
Till next time dear reader, don’t allow yourself to be daunted by the whole mountain. Just take the trail one step at a time and know that consistent effort, even in small amounts, will see you to the top. <3 Tiff
