In regards to Human genetic potential, it obviously helps to have been born with the right pedigree, so choosing your parents carefully is one aspect, but it is not the most important. Most ‘gifted’ people whether athletes, academics or artists, are generally not ‘born’ but ‘made’.
Yes, the athletes you see on the podium at the Olympics do have innate genetic advantages that enable them to excel in their particular event, but a lot of us who watch and admire these individuals, have the very same genomic potential lain dormant inside of us.* The biggest difference is that those who successfully master their chosen pursuit have put in the necessary time and practice to express this ‘natural’ talent.
Work by researchers such as Benjamin Bloom, Eric Kandel and others have shown almost conclusively that it’s less about exceptional individuals and more about exceptional conditions. These conditions can be grouped into three main areas: persistence; the right information; and time. Those that succeed in most endeavours, are usually not recognised as prodigious talents right off of the bat, rather they work hard and tirelessly even in the event of successive failures, usually under the tutelage of an expert that provides the right guidance for on average 10 years.**
The 10 year mark is derived from the evidence that it takes about 10,000 hours of concentrated, challenging and deliberate practice to master a discipline. So over 10 years, if you could put in the right work, that was almost constantly slightly out of reach of your ability, without losing the willpower to continue and you did this on average 3 hours per day, then mastery of any speciality, within reason, is not out of reach.
*See Dormant Dynamite
**This is not a die-cast figure, it is merely an observation of average time to mastery based on multi-factorial influences; some reach mastery sooner, others take longer.
No comments:
Post a Comment