Excellence: a lesson in mastery
Psychologist Anders Ericsson has devoted much of his academic life to understanding why some individuals are better at certain tasks than others. Are people born with the abilities to achieve excellence and elite status in their field? Is excellence encripted in our DNA?
His research has demonstrated that in fact, physical or mental prowess is not a genetic gift but rather a function of knowing how to enhance your skills through deliberate PRACTICE. For example Ericsson describes how figure skaters practice differently on the ice: Olympic hopefuls work on skills they have not yet mastered but club skaters tend to focus on skills they have already mastered.The master of any sport or game is generally the master of practice.
In his most recent book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell also explores the keys to success. "I'm interested in people who are outliers—in men and women who, for one reason or another, are so accomplished and so extraordinary and so outside of ordinary experience that they are as puzzling to the rest of us" He cites as examples Bill Gates and Wayne Greztky. Part of the reason for outstanding success is what he calls the 10,000-Hour Rule. Research has shown that the path to excellence in any field has nothing to do with talent. It's simply practice, 10,000 hours of it — 20 hours a week for 10 years.
George Leonard offers a philosophical explanation for mastery in his book entitled Mastery - The Keys to Long Term Fulfillment, George Leonard offers a philosophical explanation for mastery. Leonard says "Perhaps the best you can hope for on the master's journey - whether your art be management or marriage, badminton or ballet - is to cultivate the mind and the heart of the beginning at every stage along the way. For the master, surrender means there are no experts. There are only learners." (p. 88)
Do you remember the scene in the movie Karate Kid where the master asks the young student to wash the car over and over in a prescribed way? "Wax on, wax off." The student is frustrated but he persists because he respects his master and is determined to excel in Karate. The Zen master would say that for a "would be" master satisfaction is gained in the discovery of an infinite richness in the subtle variations on a same theme. Practice requires an ability to take pleasure in the endless repetition of ordinary acts.
We all want to be special. It is tempting to call ourselves masters in our field especially in this day and age where we seem to have a fixation on "experts".
A friend of mine, Bob Chartier, tells this story about the poet John Keats who invites a young man to his house for tea. The man proudly declares to Keats that he is a poet. Keats cautions him on calling himself a poet. The young man may be someone who writes rhyming verses and expresses sentiments through words but that does not necessarily make him a poet. According to Keats, it takes someone else to read what you have written and declare that you are a poet before you can call yourself a poet. "Poet" is a gift word. "Poet" is a word that you bestow upon someone who represents the essence of what is a poet to you. I would suggest that "master" is also a gift word. You cannot call yourself a master until someone else has watched you working at your craft and declare you a master.
What is it that matters so much to you that you are willing to practice it over and over for the simple pleasure of learning? Practice may lead you to excellence and who knows, maybe someday someone will say that you are a master at your craft.
For more information on Malcolm Gladwell you can visit his website:
http://www.gladwell.com/
Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-term Fulfillment by George Leonard
http://www.amazon.com/Mastery-Keys-Success-Long-Term-Fulfillment/dp/0452267560
I really like Malcolm Gladwell's books. One of his hypotheses in Outliers that you allude to is that some people excel, not because of their inherent abilities, but because they are in the right spot at the right time.
ReplyDeleteHe quotes the stats from the NHL that the vast majority of players are born in the first four months of the year. This has less to do with skill than it does with the selection system of when kids move to the next level in hockey which provides kids born in Jan - April with a considerable advantage over those born later in the year. He also notes stats that show people with massive IQs are no more likely to win nobel prizes or be "leaders" than people with average IQs.
At the end of the day, he argues, you must posess some basic level of ability, but after that it is mostly about timing.
On the one hand, this is disheartening. No matter how much I may have wanted to be an NHL star, the odds were stacked heavily against me from the beginning because I was born in November. On the other hand, it's liberating, becasue it suggests that anyone with a basic level of talen can be a master, provided they recognize and seize the opportunity when it. arises.