The “secret” to becoming excellent eluded me for many years.
Last night, while sitting on the toilet, the “secret” popped up to me like an apparition, and I had the epiphany: “Excellence is merely repeated practice.”
Of course, this is no secret – a 5th grader probably figured this out while he’s performing basic arthritics.
But that is the “secret”.
Think – Michael Jordon was one NBA’s greatest basket ball player. And you know what happened to him in high school? He coach told him he sucks, and he should probably quit.
Of course, Jordon didn’t. He muttered to himself “I CAN DO IT” while practicing his jump shots to “Eyes of the Tiger”.
Then some genius decided to write a book on this obvious fact (I think the book is called “Outlier”. Great book by the way, I only read the first 10 pages)
So what can we derive from this obvious discovery? Practice. Everyday.
After all, if you practice everyday for an hour, that’s 365 hours per year. Or 1825 hours in 5 years. (Or 76 full days).
Time will pass by anyways, so why not do it? The biggest hurdle is starting – and continuing it until it forms a habit. Then it becomes part of your daily routine. Like sex.
However, practice isn’t enough. There needs to be “Zen-Kai”, which is a fancy word for “continuous improvement”.
For example, in weight lifting, you would gradually increase the weight and repetition over time to gain more muscles. Likewise, for running you would gradually increase the tempo and running distance over time. Zen Kai.
Of course, you probably know all of this already. My niece who’s in 5th grade told me these secrets. Credits to her.
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