Research about the training of experts has convinced pop culture that 10,000 hours of practice are required to master everything from being a chef to being a physicist, or being a great musician.   Who has 10,000 hours to spare??  That’s two-hundred fifty, forty-hour work weeks.   Five years of nothing but practice.  10,000 hours is both unrealistic and unnecessary for nearly all of us.

 

The good news is that recent research demonstrates that in order to be adequate at any task, a person needs to spend TWENTY, intensely focused, practice hours.  The key is “intensely focused”.

 

Watch Josh Kaufman’s TED talk about the 20-hour learning curve.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MgBikgcWnY

 

Here are his steps along the path to becoming adequate at any skill.  

 

1. Deconstruct the skill

Break it down into the smallest possible chunks.  Learn those.

 

2. Learn enough to self-correct

Get better at noticing WHEN you make a mistake and working to improve that element of your performance.  Read books, visit websites, watch You-tubes, buy DVDs, use whatever asset works best for you.  Become your own best critic and “Mr. Fix-it”. Of course, teachers are always helpful. Sign up for lessons.  Attend workshops. 

 

3.  Remove barriers to practice

Focus Focus Focus.  Turn off the TV, your phone, the internet….. everything and anything that calls for your attention and distracts you from focused, self-correcting practice time.

 

4.  Practice for at least twenty hours

Practice intensely, critically for at least twenty hours.  “Noodling around” doesn’t count.  Go at the practice as seriously as you can.

 

The outcome is not mastery.  The outcome is adequate skill.  Don’t a set broad goal like “learn to play the bodhran”.  Set a rational, realistic goal like “learn to play one reel pattern on the bodhran”.  Over time these small units of success will aggregate to become the many skills of a master.

 

The early going is always the hardest part.  Push your way through the awkwardness of a new skill.  Keep at it.  Over time the awkward will become the familiar. 

 

Give this 20 hours.  You just might be amazed at what you can accomplish!