Latest / Impact Ready / 163. 10,000 Hours

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163. 10,000 Hours · Impact Ready

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  Welcome to Impact Ready, a show dedicated to helping you elevate
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  your impact in the world. I'm Steph Safra, your host.
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  Let's explore the power of showing up with intention and
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  energy each day. This is for those who seek to
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  make life truly meaningful. Get ready for impact.
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  Hello team, welcome to a new week.
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  Welcome to Monday. Hope you had an awesome weekend.
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  In this episode today I want to talk about what it takes to get
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  to a certain level of mastery. When we talk about having
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  powerful impact in the world, we are often talking about people
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  who are high performers or people who do really cool stuff
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  in the world. But the reality is everybody has
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  the potential to have incredible impact in their life.
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  Doesn't matter who you are, what you do, what your walk of life
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  has been, everybody has the potential to have incredible
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  impact. And so one of the things that I
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  think about a lot is the people in my life who have incredible
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  impact. I have a lot of people in my
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  world. They do incredible things.
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  They have very cool jobs. There's, I mean, some of the
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  people in my life, I'm like, how do I, how do I know you?
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  How do I associate with you? You're so cool.
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  Like what you do is so important.
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  And so I'm fascinating and it makes me wonder about them.
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  How did they get to where they are?
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  How did they arrive in this place where they do what they do
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  or create what they create? They have the impact that they
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  do. I think about it all the time.
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  I think about the path that they must have taken in their life
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  that has LED them to the current place where they are now or
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  their career that they're in or the jurisdiction that they might
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  be working in. I'm very curious as to how they
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  got good at what they do. And you might have people in
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  your life who you wonder the same.
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  I mean, were they passionate about this stuff?
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  Did they always know what they wanted to do when they were
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  little? Did they stay up all night
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  studying for things so that they could get to where they are?
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  Did they? And I'm curious because I wonder
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  how it is that people end up having the impact that they
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  have. And I don't know if you ever
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  think about this, but I often wonder how do people get good at
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  the things that they're good at in their lives?
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  You've probably heard the adage that it takes 10,000 hours to
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  get good at something. It's a concept by a guy named
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  Doctor Anders Erickson. And this concept was made famous
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  by Malcolm Gladwell, who wrote a book, I think it was in 2008.
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  It was a book called Outliers, the Story of success.
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  And in this book, the idea of the 10,000 hours is that anybody
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  can become a master in their field if they dedicate 10,000
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  hours of practice to it. 10,000 hours would be, I don't know, 7
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  to 10 years of practicing work on a specific thing.
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  Maybe 5 or 6 if you're really devoting a lot of time to
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  something. In the book Outliers, Gladwell
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  talks about different examples of people who made it like The
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  Beatles, Bill Gates, people who devoted so many hours of
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  practice to their craft and at that specific tipping point of
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  10,000 hours really broke through and quote, UN quote made
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  it in their field. There's also another idea that
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  says that it's not just 10,000 hours that makes you good at
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  something. It's not simply putting in a
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  specific amount of time because not all practice is created
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  equal. And I'm sure this makes sense to
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  you. It's 10,000 hours of what you
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  would call deliberate practice that makes you really good or
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  great at something. And deliberate practice is about
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  the pursuit of mastery at its most basic level.
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  There's another incredible book that I've talked about before
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  called The Great Work of Your Life.
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  It's by a guy named Steven Cope. And Cope talks about this idea
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  of deliberate practice also, he says mastery is very rarely the
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  result of just somebody's talent.
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  And we can see this in people out in the world so often,
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  people who really rise the top or do something great.
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  It's not just their talent, but it's the way that they show up
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  with it. And Cope says that deliberate
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  practice is about blending your gift, whatever your gift might
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  be, with a certain level of sustained, intensive effort.
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  So essentially, it's the quality of effort and consistent input
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  that creates deliberate practice.
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  Another way to think of this would be to think about it in
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  terms of a formula. Giftedness plus effort equals
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  mastery, where giftedness is like the fire and effort is the
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  gasoline, so that over time you can build a bonfire of impact.
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  I actually learned about this idea of deliberate practice
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  years ago when I was doing an externship with one of my
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  mentors in Chinese medicine. His name is Bob Doane.
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  He has a practice in Poulsbo, WA, a little clinic, but he sees
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  over 100 patients a day up there with his team.
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  And Bob was so devoted to his craft of acupuncture in Chinese
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  medicine, I'd actually never seen anybody work as
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  intentionally as he did, specifically around herbal
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  medicine and pulse diagnosis. He just, he deliberately
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  practiced learning not only within his own clinic, but from
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  the best people in his field. And then he was taking his own
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  clinical experiences and he was looking for patterns within
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  them. He became his own kind of
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  researcher within his own practice, and I was so impressed
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  with the way that he showed up to his work.
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  And the more I learned about him, the more that I understood
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  that this was a skill that he developed in every part of his
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  life because he had multiple careers before he became an
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  acupuncturist. He showed up in Chinese medicine
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  and acupuncture school probably when he was in his 50s, and he
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  had a career in the oil industry before that.
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  He had a long time practice of yoga and meditation.
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  I mean, this guy had an incredible life and everything
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  he did, he devoted so much intentional, deliberate practice
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  to. And he became so skilled in
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  everything he did. And he taught me a lot about
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  this idea of deliberate practice.
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  I remember we were sitting in his office one day in between
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  patients and he said to me, you can't expect to be great at
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  something with just good effort. And as time has gone on, it's
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  just made so much more sense to me.
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  You can't. You have to put in mastery level
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  effort to become a master at something that you care about.
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  Steven Cope speaks about this. He talks about the factors that
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  are required for expert practice.
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  I'll name a couple of them 'cause I think this is really
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  important and something that we don't think about very often.
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  The list includes sustained and intensive practice of a skill
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  for several hours a day, several hours a day.
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  How many of us practice something that we want to build
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  skill in for several hours a day?
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  In this day and age, it's not as often as you might think because
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  we're so distracted. There's so many different things
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  going on for us in a day, so many responsibilities and
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  obligations that pull at our attention.
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  Another one practice with very specific intention of improving,
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  not just repeating. And so many people will show up
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  in their work or their habits or their hobbies, just repeating
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  what they did the day before and not really with the intention of
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  improving because that takes thought, that takes thinking
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  about something and presence. That's not something we give to
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  our practices every day. Another one practice that's
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  sustained for a long time, in many cases years.
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  I think many of us have to level set our expectations around this
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  because often there's a perception that you can get
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  great at something in a short amount of time.
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  And while that might be true in some cases, and there's
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  definitely outliers when it comes to this, we forget that
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  practice for a sustained period of time, in most cases years is
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  what is required to become really skilled and great at
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  something. Practice that other teachers and
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  colleagues can comment on or be involved in.
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  Essential. This means having mentors,
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  teachers, people who are better than you at what you do and
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  getting them involved in your process.
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  That pushes us, that grows us. And I don't think that's
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  something that everybody does. Another one is having recovery
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  time so that there's energy that you can have for tomorrow.
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  Because remember, this type of practice requires energy and
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  purposeful intention. You can't be exhausted and show
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  up in a deliberate practice. And then finally, spending time
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  in what Stephen Coke calls the domain of the task, which would
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  be spending time around people or things that support the work
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  you do. For example, if you were an
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  artist, you'd spend time with other artists, or you'd spend
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  time talking about art or talking about trends in art.
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  You're in that domain. And so you can see with all of
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  these different factors that influence deliberate practice, a
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  lot of this stuff is not stuff that people think about or do on
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  a regular basis. And when you engage in this, you
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  start to see your topic or the object of your practice in a
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  different way. You see things in more detail.
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  Your vision becomes more refined because you're getting to be
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  more of an expert around it. I remember when I first started
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  practicing acupuncture and I joined my current practice, my
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  business partner Sarah, she started to teach me what's
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  called trigger point acupuncture and trigger point muscle
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  release. Trigger point acupuncture is the
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  practice of using acupuncture needles to stimulate the muscles
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  in a way where you can cause a small contraction in the muscle.
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  It's called a fasciculation and the muscles will twitch and
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  release. And the reason we do it is
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  because it's one of the quickest ways to get people out of pain
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  and relieve tension in the muscles.
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  We use it for injuries, accidents, athletes, really any
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  person who has any sort of muscular pain or tension.
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  And I remember that it took me years to get really good at it
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  because it's not something that you're taught in Graduate
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  School, something that you have to pursue on your own.
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  And it took a lot of deliberate practice.
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  I had to study pictures of the body.
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  I had to learn the trigger points one by one for every
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  single muscle. I had to practice finding those
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  trigger points. I had to play around with
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  different needling techniques and use different gauges of
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  needles to see what works best on these types of muscles.
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  With my techniques in my hands, I had to become more adept at
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  working on each area of the body.
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  I mean, it, it just I, the more I learned, the more I realized
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  there's so much that I don't know.
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  And I think that is a big part of deliberate practice.
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  It certainly took me 10,000 hours, if not more to become
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  really skilled at this technique.
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  But thinking back on my first or second year, I thought I was
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  good at it. I thought I was, you know, doing
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  a fine job. And I realize now it took me a
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  decade of practice, really deliberate practice, to become
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  skilled at this thing, something that I didn't really have a
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  clear insight about at the time when I was learning initially.
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  So why is this topic important? Why are we even talking about
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  deliberate practice or mastery or 10,000 hours?
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  Because we lose sight of the fact that it takes time to build
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  mastery. We get stuck in the trap of
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  thinking that things can just come so quickly and easily
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  because we live in a high consumption world.
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  We live in a very fast-paced world where attention spans are
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  short. There's so much information
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  coming at us all the time and it's really easy for us to get
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  distracted and not be present with what we're doing.
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  And to have a conversation around how do we actually do
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  things well is totally applicable to impact.
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  I guarantee there are a lot of people in your place of work
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  right now who are showing up and doing their job, but they're not
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  practicing deliberately. They might be putting in their
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  10,000 hours, but it doesn't necessarily mean that they're
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  improving. It doesn't mean that they're
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  moving the needle or moving towards mastery because they're
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  not showing up with intention. They might kind of be phoning it
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  in and it's probably not even conscious.
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  It's just something that they've gotten into the pattern of
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  doing. I've noticed a trend in social
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  media lately, maybe you have to, where a lot of people call
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  themselves experts and that word really freaks me out because I
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  don't take that word lightly. I know that becoming an expert
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  in something takes a lot of deliberate practice.
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  It takes a lot of intentional work, years of learning and
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  making mistakes and learning lessons and having failures.
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  And yet I see a lot of people, a lot of influencers out in the
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  world, whether it's in social media or otherwise, in all
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  different industries, calling themselves experts.
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  And you see people kind of falling into the trend of this
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  with quick fixes or get rich schemes or, you know, short term
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  solutions to really big problems.
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  And the whole thing speaks to this fast and furious short
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  attention span atmosphere that we've created over the last
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  decade with the uprising of new tech and and the trends of
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  having bite size information. And while that might be the
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  reality we live in, I think we also have to hold this truth in
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  our minds. Deliberate practice is what
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  creates a level of mastery. It's what allows us to be great
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  at things. And no hate to any of those
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  people who are out in the world calling themselves experts.
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  They can do what they want to do.
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  Truthfully, they're probably just following the flow of
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  culture, but we have to be realistic about what it takes to
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  become great, and we're not giving enough weight and credit
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  to the fact that it takes time and deliberate practice to
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  become skilled at things. It's not just 10,000 hours,
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  although it does begin there, but it's 10,000 hours of
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  intentional work showing up with presence and purpose.
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  I think this is what makes the difference between the people
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  who really rise up and make a difference in their world.
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  I think it's the people who really deliberately practice
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  things, who show up with presence and intention in the
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  things that they do. I think those people are the
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  ones who become really great at what they do and have tremendous
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  impact in their worlds. My guess is that there's
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  something that you do every single day in your life, whether
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  it's your work, your career, your job.
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  Maybe it's a hobby or a side hustle that you've been working
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  on. Maybe it's a relationship that
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  you've been in for a long time. But there's probably something
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  that you do often, something that you've put a lot of hours
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  into. But you might not be showing up
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  in a really purposeful, deliberate way.
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  And I'm wondering what would happen if you did.
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  What if you started to include some purposeful, deliberate
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  practice with a very specific intention of improving and not
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  just repeating the day before? Or maybe it's you spending more
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  time in what they call the domain of the task, surrounded
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  by people who also do or love what you do.
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  Or what would it look like to have more recovery time so that
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  you can show up tomorrow with really purposeful energy?
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  When it comes to being impact ready, we always say you're
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  responsible for the energy that you bring into a room.
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  I think we all want our impact and our influence to be on
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  purpose and not on accident. And the same is true for the
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  level of mastery that we achieve in our life.
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  Don't we want it to be on purpose instead of on accident?
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  Don't we want to be on our path towards it?
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  Recently I was reading a different book called Beyond
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  High Performance by a guy, Jason Jaggart.
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  He talks about how there's all kinds of people at all levels of
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  performance. There's low performance, where
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  the main question is what do I need to do to not get fired?
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  Then there's just basic performance where the person
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  asks how could I be good at what I do?
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  By the way, this is where I think most people live this
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  level of basic performance. They're just doing enough to get
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  by and I think most times it's unconscious.
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  People aren't even thinking about the fact that they aren't
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  doing deliberate practice. Then there's high performance
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  with the question, how can I be the best?
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  And this is a question that a lot of high performers ask, a
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  lot of my coaching clients live in this space.
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  How can I be the best at what I do?
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  But finally, there's a level that he talks about that's
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  beyond high performance. It's it's what he calls meta
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  performance, where the question is, what am I capable of?
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  And I love that question, what am I capable of?
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  Because it's not just about showing up and putting in the
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  time, it's about doing something with intention.
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  It takes 10,000 hours to get good at something in theory.
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  And then there's a lot of people out there who are saying, yes,
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  you can get good at something, but you can't get great at it
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  without deliberate practice. Well, the reality is that you've
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  probably already been doing something for 10,000 hours, and
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  you'll probably continue to do it for another 40 or 50 or
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  70,000 hours if you're continuing to do the line of
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  work you do or something that you love.
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  And so the question becomes, do you just want to be good
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  cruising at the place you are now, or do you want to do more?
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  Do you want to have a true impact?
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  Do you want to develop a level of mastery that will have ripple
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  effects in your world? That's the question I think
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  about a lot. And I think that's where we can
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  start asking ourselves, what am I capable of?
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  Because that question feels a lot more limitless and it starts
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  to spawn a lot more thinking about what's possible in our
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  lives. So my challenge to you this week
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  is to think about what is your 10,000 hours?
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  What are you spending it in? What are you doing?
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  What's the vocation or the craft or the hobby that you're putting
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  those hours into? And then what could you be
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  capable of? So that we're thinking not just
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  about putting in the time, but putting in the time with
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  deliberate practice so that we could be great, even masterful
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  at something and have true, true, tremendous impact in our
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  life. So I hope this helps.
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  I hope this has you thinking about how you're spending your
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  time in a different way. Thank you for being here,
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  spending the time listening to this podcast.
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  I appreciate you. And as always, thank you for
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  being ready to Impact. Thanks for listening to Impact
• 18:58
  Ready. I hope today's episode inspired
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  you to own your impact and recognize that you are powerful.
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  By elevating our energy and awareness, we can create
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  exponential change in this life. If you enjoyed today's insights,
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  share them with a friend and subscribe to the show for more.
• 19:13
  I truly appreciate you. Thanks again for being here.