“Talent you have naturally. Skill is only developed by hours and hours and hours of beating on your craft.” Will Smith
We have all heard of the seven year old chess prodigy, or individuals with photographic memories that can instantly memorize information and then recite it. However, these are the exceptions, not the rule. Far more often then not, when you meet someone who has reached the pinnacle of their field or sport, it is because of good old fashioned hard work.
Think of one of the greatest basketball players of all times and what physical gifts they possessed. Who popped in to your head? I bet it wasn’t Larry Bird. Everyone who follows basketball knows who Larry Bird is and what a great basketball player he was, but Larry Bird definitely did not look the part. No, if Larry Bird did not love the sport of basketball as much as he did, none of us would probably ever of heard of him. He would be a farmer in French Lick, Indiana. But because of his love for the game, Bird poured himself in to it heart and soul and transformed what was average talent into a set of all world skills. To highlight this, Bird would shoot 500 free throws every morning before he would go to school. If he was willing to spend that kind of time each day on one of the most basic and fundamental parts of the game, what kind of time do you think he spent on the rest?
The lesson in this is that if you truly want to reach your greatest potential in anything, you will have to put in the necessary hours to do it. And what is the best way to accumulate those hours? Consistency. Bird shot 500 free throws before he went to school EVERY DAY. If you do the math and apply it from middle school throughout high school, he shot approximately 600,000 free throws. This doesn’t include games, practice, weekends, or even summers! Now, I don’t know what your free throw percentage currently is, but I bet if you shot 600,000 free throws and focused on technique, it would improve! The key again, is EVERY DAY. He didn’t do it for a couple of weeks, which would have equaled 5,000 free throws, or even for just a year, which would have been 100,000 free throws. He did it every day before school; period. That is the awesome power of consistency.
Malcolm Gladwell, the author of the NY Times bestseller “Outliers”, created something that he calls “The 10,000 hour rule.” He believes with 10,000 hours of deliberate practice in a skill, you can become world-class in it. There has been a lot of debate about this, but whether its 10,000 hours or 5,000 hours, I think that the concept is valid. If you practice something deliberately AND consistently, you will improve at it. In fact, I bet the more consistent you practice it, you will surprise yourself at how good you can become or the impact you can have on your life.
As readers of the blog know, I went from weighing 330 pounds to running an ultramarathon. Did I run deliberately and consistently? You betcha! Here is the proof:
That year I ran two marathons, three half marathons, and a 10k, setting personal bests in all three categories. This stuff works.
Where can you apply this in your life? In any area that you want to improve! If you’d like to be a better leader, work on it everyday without fail. Read books, find a mentor, watch YouTube video’s of great people that you admire. Want to improve your financial situation? Do the same exact things. Learn the skills that are necessary and put them in to action EVERY DAY. I guarantee that if you do this, whatever area of your life that you are trying to improve, will improve.
Unfortunately, this works for bad habits as well, so be mindful of what you do consistently because you may pay a heavy price. If you spend money you don’t have you’ll get further and further in to debt. If you smoke every day, you could get lung cancer. If you are unhealthy, you may become overweight and get heart disease, diabetes, or any of the many other issues related with an unhealthy lifestyle.
Now that you see the awesome power of consistency, what are you waiting for?
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Questions, comments, feedback? Please leave them in the comments box and we can have a discussion!
I’m trying to figure out how to be more consistent AND hit the right frequency for running. Do you have any thoughts on how to calibrate running 4 vs 5 vs 6 (or even 7!?) days per week? I fluctuate now between 4 and 5 and wonder when it is better to take a day off versus going for a slow, easy recovery run.
Zac, that’s a great question! And, it is a frustrating answer because… it depends. Ugh! What are your goals? If you are running to just stay fit, burn calories, and be happy, then you should run at least four times a week to get the benefit for your health, and these can be fairly easy paced miles. If your goal is to run a marathon, then I suggest you create a plan and then consistency would be sticking to the plan. Obviously you can have any number of goals, so these are just two examples. A thumb rule that I use in regard to when to run less is this. If my body is telling me to rest, I will err on the side of taking an extra day off rather then pushing my body. If you would like help with looking at your goals and creating a plan, send me an e-mail. Click on Contact and you’ll see my e-mail address. Peace. Joe the Runner