Practice Makes Imperfect

Have you ever looked at an elite athlete and asked, “Why can’t I do that?”

Or seen a master chess player and thought, “How come they are so smart?”

Or maybe you studied a brilliant sculpture and said, “I’m not creative like that!”

Don’t worry. You need just 10,000 hours, and you can do any of those things.

Malcolm Gladwell popularized that idea—that 10,000 hours is the magic number of greatness—in his book The Outliers. To master any sport, craft, or art, you merely need to work on it for 10,000 60-minute blocks.

I received similar advice from my tennis coach, usually after I was wildly swinging and dumping the ball into the net. He said, “Just hit 10,000 volleys and then you will no longer have a volley problem.”

Keep in mind I do play tennis 6 or 7 hours a week on average. It’s my primary source of exercise. After doing that for 10 years, shouldn’t I be better?

But even with that kind of attention, I’m only partway to the 26 years I would need to master the sport. My hours are not always deliberate, carefully reflecting on what I am learning so I make new mistakes each day.

Plus, there are a lot of issues in my game that require 10,000 hours each. There’s that backhand chicken-wing problem. Or my tendency to stand flat-footed. Or holding the racquet with a death-grip.

There’s also that problem with aging every year, which counteracts all of the other progress.

And those minutes I have spent considering what kind of sandwich I am going to have for lunch or the PowerPoint I need to create. I can’t count those hours. It’s amazing what the human mind can cover in the middle of a tennis point.

This 10,000 hour-rule must be why I never mastered French. Even after four years in high school and several years of le français in college, I am far from fluent.

Maybe that’s why I’m still learning how to be a good parent. I’ve had 23 years of practice—even at 12 hours a day, that’s way more than 10,000 hours. But the object of my parenting keeps growing and changing, too.

What I knew about managing a toddler (how to open a juice box, schedule naps, and pick Cheerios up off the floor) is not super relevant when parenting a young adult. I can’t tally my hours fast enough to keep up with him evolving.

There’s a great Dan & Shay, Justin Bieber song:

I’d spend ten thousand hours and ten thousand more
Oh, if that's what it takes to learn that
Sweet heart of yours
And I might never get there, but I'm gonna try
If it's ten thousand hours or the rest of my life

Whose heart out there are you trying to learn? Where might you need the most effort and practice?

It’s worth pondering what you’re tallying in this lifetime. What categories will show up on your timesheet when you wrap up your last day on this planet?

Whatever it is, make it a good list.