Being Extraordinary

                                                                              By Jake F.

You want to be the superhero of your field, but your Genie lamp hasn’t found you yet. Fear not! Radioactive spiders or child-prodigy status are not necessary in clinching the title of awesome in anything you do.  The answer you are looking for is much more mundane: time & energy.

                Before you Einsteins debate me that time is energy, or that literally everything requires the two ingredients, hear me out.

The Method

 

                Now I'm not talking about being really good at what you do, I'm talking about being freakishly phenomenal. You may even get to the point where people know you by name. Tiger, Beyonce, Lennon, Jordan.

There is a scant observed formulary for achieving elite standing in any vocation: 10,000 Hours of practice. According to research by braniac Dr. K. Anders Ericsson of Florida State University, this many hours training in any single discipline will inaugurate you to Commander and Chief of your work. Bill Gates, The Beatles, Wayne Gretzky, Jimi Hendrix, and countless others have all fallen down that 10,000-hour rabbit hole, for the better.

                Before you begin fleshing out a healthy time-diet to acquire the needed hours to lock in your stardom, here are some common trumps to avoid.

Trumps to avoid

                Kicking a soccer ball against the side of a building every week for 40 hours will not make you Beckham in five years. You will just be really good at passing to a wall. The point is you need to practice correctly.  A great fencing Master once said “Practice does not make perfect, it makes permanent.”  Makes sense right?

 To sidestep wasted time and energy you need two things: first, you need to push yourself, and second, you must have coaching/instruction.

Growth

Pushing yourself to grow in your arena will offer you well-rounded skills. The guy from before who kicked a ball dumbly for five years didn’t push himself. That may have been a great starting point for a beginner, but after a while we all need to move on.

 

Mentorship

Finding guidance is more intuitive. It could be anything from a coach in sports or music, to reading a book about your topic of interest .This is essential because you need to know what your mistakes are and in what direction you should strive for next. If I may run our soccer analogy to the dirt, a deft coach may have had the idiot practice running with the ball or passing to teammates. Mentorship is pretty duh when you think about it. Assistance or instruction could mean merely going to school and learning about the subject or your passion.

 

So if your goal is to be on the A-list of your game, make out a weekly plan to harness this success law. It could be 20 hours a week, for 10 years, or 40 hours a week for 5. You have the freedom to choose the path, just remember to work your tail off.

 

Yours Truly,

Jake F.