“Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person.” - Albert Einstein
Just ran across an excellent little article from Zenhabits on The Only Way to Become Amazingly Great at Something. Below are a few of my favorite quotes from the passage - with a couple personal notes.
There’s only one way to become good at something:
1. First, you must learn it by reading or listening to others who know how to do it, but most especially by doing. (unconscious incompetence)
2. Then do some more. At this point, you’ll start to understand it, but you’ll suck. This stage could take months. (conscious incompetence)
3. Do some more. After a couple of years, you’ll get good at it. (conscious competence)
4. Do some more. If you learn from mistakes, and aren’t afraid to make mistakes in the first place, you’ll go from good to great. (unconscious competence)
We're all obviously striving to get to that last step in the learning process - unconscious competence. This is when our sleights, flourishes, and so forth have literally become a habit. You'll often hear this represented in the phrase "I can do this with my eyes closed." I believe it's at this stage that we can focus solely on our presentation, as our mind will be free of other distractions. Anyway, back to the article:
It takes anywhere from 6-10 years to get great at something, depending on how often and how much you do it. Some estimate that it takes 10,000 hours to master something, but I think it varies from person to person and depends on the skill and other factors.
There’s no one who is great at his profession who hasn’t been doing it for at least 6 years - no designer, no programmer, no carpenter, no architect, no surgeon, no teacher, no musician, no artist... you get the point. I dare you to name one. Most have been doing it for over a decade, and are still looking to improve.
It takes desire, it takes drive, it takes lots and lots of doing.
So here’s the thing: don’t get discouraged if you’re just starting out. Have fun, like we all did in the beginning. If you have fun, you’ll learn to love it, and THAT’S when it clicks. When you love something, you’ll want to do it all the time, sometimes late at night and often, you’ll jump out of bed and want to do it before you move your morning bowels.
How true that last quote is.
I hope this encourages any beginners out there to keep pushing yourself. Don't be dismayed by failure - you never learn from anything when you do it flawlessly. It's not going to happen overnight, guys. Stick with it and don't give up!
Link to original article: http://bit.ly/489hAv
Just ran across an excellent little article from Zenhabits on The Only Way to Become Amazingly Great at Something. Below are a few of my favorite quotes from the passage - with a couple personal notes.
There’s only one way to become good at something:
1. First, you must learn it by reading or listening to others who know how to do it, but most especially by doing. (unconscious incompetence)
2. Then do some more. At this point, you’ll start to understand it, but you’ll suck. This stage could take months. (conscious incompetence)
3. Do some more. After a couple of years, you’ll get good at it. (conscious competence)
4. Do some more. If you learn from mistakes, and aren’t afraid to make mistakes in the first place, you’ll go from good to great. (unconscious competence)
We're all obviously striving to get to that last step in the learning process - unconscious competence. This is when our sleights, flourishes, and so forth have literally become a habit. You'll often hear this represented in the phrase "I can do this with my eyes closed." I believe it's at this stage that we can focus solely on our presentation, as our mind will be free of other distractions. Anyway, back to the article:
It takes anywhere from 6-10 years to get great at something, depending on how often and how much you do it. Some estimate that it takes 10,000 hours to master something, but I think it varies from person to person and depends on the skill and other factors.
There’s no one who is great at his profession who hasn’t been doing it for at least 6 years - no designer, no programmer, no carpenter, no architect, no surgeon, no teacher, no musician, no artist... you get the point. I dare you to name one. Most have been doing it for over a decade, and are still looking to improve.
It takes desire, it takes drive, it takes lots and lots of doing.
So here’s the thing: don’t get discouraged if you’re just starting out. Have fun, like we all did in the beginning. If you have fun, you’ll learn to love it, and THAT’S when it clicks. When you love something, you’ll want to do it all the time, sometimes late at night and often, you’ll jump out of bed and want to do it before you move your morning bowels.
How true that last quote is.
I hope this encourages any beginners out there to keep pushing yourself. Don't be dismayed by failure - you never learn from anything when you do it flawlessly. It's not going to happen overnight, guys. Stick with it and don't give up!Link to original article: http://bit.ly/489hAv
