I have always been fascinated by the 10,000-hour rule which states that it takes approximately 10,000 hours to master a skill.
If we should break this down in numbers, if someone spends 10 hours a week on a side skill, that would be 520 hours per year, it’s going to take close to 20 years or a little bit less to get the 10,000 hours needed to actually master a skill.
Now with that being said, there are many ways to optimize and compress that time, if you dedicate more hours a week you could get there shorter, if you dedicate 1000 hours per year minimum on that skill, you could see huge progress.
What took Jim 10,000 hours can take John 5,000 hours or less due to the intensity of focus during the sessions, background knowledge, and even intelligence.
Background knowledge is very important, Mozart started playing the piano from an early age and never stopped. He practically had done his 10,000 hours in his teens or earlier and stack another 20,000 on throughout the rest of his life.
Talent also goes a long way as well, I have seen persons who are just talented within a field and everything just seems effortless for them.
But most of us are pretty average, meaning that most of us have to work harder and longer than those who are gifted or grew up in the right environment which is important as well and shouldn’t be pushed under the rug.
Mastery is highly variable and it’s important to be self-aware as it relates to progress and how far you are on that journey.
The 10,000-hour rule is just a scorecard, mastery does not have any end. If you practice or you don’t, the world never stops, you are either getting better or getting worse and that is an important fact in life. You have to just play the long term, pick your mountain and begin the journey.
