You’ve probably heard of the 10,000-hour rule — the supposedly optimal amount of time required to master a skill.
Whether it’s playing chess, mastering an art, or creating the perfect business, these thousands of hours have purportedly been exactly what’s necessary to become an Expert in any given field.
But what if we’ve got it all wrong?
There seems to be another way to deliberate practice, and it doesn’t just come down to the total amount of time something has been studied.
Instead, the consistency of deliberate practice seems to be key to the success of many of the world’s most influential people — and it just comes down to an hour a week.
In a recent article from Inc.com, the world’s leaders in fields of business, media, sports, arts (to name but a few) were tracked to find commonalities between their methods to success.
What the author found was three common threads that ran throughout multiple success stories
It came down to three simple elements:
Reading
Reflecting
Experimenting
Oprah has credited much of her success to the knowledge she gained from books while reflecting and musing on what we’ve done — and how far we have to go — is a simple technique Reid Hoffman uses to sound out an idea. And having the humility to test and experiment on your ideas would put you in the same league as Thomas Edison and Benjamin Franklin.
Some key points from the article also included:
People who use the 5-hour rule in the workplace show faster and greater improvement
Skill acquisition — made simple by the 5-hour rule — is more important than
Learning should be treated the same as exercise: a necessary, daily experience that benefits our overall wellbeing
These arguments support the idea that we need a rich intellectual life in order to live a fulfilled, meaningful life.
By simply fostering learning — and treating it as a non-negotiable, inherent part of our lives — we’re able to master skills more quickly, shortcut the path to success, and ensure we live an economically healthy life.
Traditional goal-setting is dangerous. Extraordinary By Design unveils a fundamentally new way to think about your life and your goals.
When you look at your goals as tools to get the experiences that make you happy, grow rapidly, and contribute to the world — you can then break your life down into 12 distinct areas.
These 12 areas are so interconnected that when one is lacking, it will pull down the others. But when you elevate one, it with elevate your entire life.
This is how you become Extraordinary By Design.
Have you ever tried the 5-hour rule? How do you fit deliberate practice into your life? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
The post The 5-Hour Rule To Excel At Any Skill — And In Life appeared first on Mindvalley Academy Blog.