MM#72--Lets Rock 10,000 hours

Welcome to the theory to action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time to help you take action immediately, and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now, here's your host, David Kaiser.

Hello, I am David and welcome back to another Mojo minute. What do Michael Jordan and Wolfgang Mozart have in common? Now, you might say they were greats in their profession, David, namely in basketball and classical music. And if that was your answer, you would certainly be right. But what else? Now you might further answer well, they had tons of success. Yes, that is true. And if I said did everything, possibly, and probably come easy to them? Most people, maybe you would say yes, sir. Absolutely. Because after all, that is what people believe about most super talented people. And I would say that's the myth that everything comes easy for the super talented people. And in that case, let's dig into and explore that theme a little bit deeper. let's scratch the surface of that myth. 

And today's Mojo minute. We know for example, that Mozart watched his dad Leopold teach his sister music from the day he was born. And by the time he was three, he was hard at work himself, learning music. And we know as our other example, that Michael Jordan grew up with a older and bigger brother, who wouldn't let him win games on their makeshift basketball court in North Carolina, as a young lad. And later Michael didn't make the varsity team as a sophomore in high school. So clearly, Air Jordan, who most of us watched fly through the air on basketball courts during the 80s and 90s, was grounded for much of his early life. 

And so let's revisit that original question. What did Jordan and Mozart have in common? Our correct answer would be they worked hard. But that begs the question, how hard is hard work? How can it be measured? That's such a subjective statement hard work. Your hard work woman might be different than my hard work. And that is very true. Hard work is quite difficult to measure. Until now, we know from the experts guys such as Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers and Daniel Coyle, in his book, The Talent Code, and most especially Geoff Colvin, who we have featured on a previous Mojo minute that based on their research, they all believe the magic number of quote, deliberate practice is 10,000 hours. So, this 10,000 hours of deliberate practice, is that the same as hard work, Geoff Colvin says yes. And that is what require that is what is required. So now we say, okay, 10,000 hours, but how long is this 10,000 hours? 

Well, if we break it down, that's roughly four hours a day, five days a week, 50 weeks a year if we take two weeks off just for the holidays, and for certain events throughout the year, 50 weeks a year for roughly 10 years. Now, remembering back to our mojo minute number 33. Geoff Colvin in the talent is overrated book uses that term deliberate practice as hard work. It's kind of interchangeable for Jeff. So let's go to that book. Talent is Overrated, who we've, which we've reviewed before. And dig into this deliberate practice definition. Quote, deliberate practice is characterized by several elements. It is activity designed specifically to improve performance. Often with a teacher's help. It can be repeated a lot feedback on results, is continuously available. It's highly demanding mentally, whether the activity is purely intellectual, such as chess or business related activities or heavily physical, such as sports, and it isn't much fun, unquote. 

Dang deliberate practice equals hard work. isn't much fun. Now you can check out the book for more details on exploring each one of these elements that make up the definition of deliberate practice. But in today's Mojo minute, I just want us to allow ourselves to examine our motivations and our dedication, and most especially our hard work. Do we want to increase our performance? Are we willing to put in the time?

Do we get comfortable and like to coast? On our God given talents? Are we willing to work hard like Mozart or Michael Jordan to increase our skills. And as for Mozart, I had to include there's a great quote from a New York from the New Yorker music critic that I just had to share. And here it is, quote, ambitious parents who are currently playing the quote, Baby Mozart video, for their toddlers may be disappointed to learn that Mozart became Mozart, by working furiously hard on quote. I thought that was a great quote. So we know there are no shortcuts, there is only hard work. So now back to you. 

Do you want to achieve greatness? If not, that's understandable. Most folks don't want to invest the time or the energy to get to certain goals. And with that wisdom under our belt, we can appreciate most especially the greats and all the field that did put in the hard work and the deliberate practice and the time and invest the energy because they are not born with it. And they certainly weren't, quote, Lucky. We can put that bed, we can put that myth to bed now. And let us ask the final question, if we do want to achieve greatness, if we do want to fully use our God given talents, if we say yes internally to that question, then the only other question is, how's those 10,000 hours of deliberate practice coming along?

Thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoyed this theory to action podcast. Be sure to check out our show page at T Mojo academy.com where we have everything we discussed in this podcast as well as other great resources. Until next time, keep getting your mojo on