Success? Failure?
There’s a lot of talk about failure and success, especially in the business world.
People are succeeding wildly. Others are failing dismally. But not all the time. That’s why you hear talk of a ‘good year’, ‘rough year’, ‘an ok year’, and all other kinds of years.
But it’s as easy to succeed in something as it is to fail. Sometimes it’s harder to fail than it is to succeed.
A lot of that comes from our conditioning. We’ve been educated to think that it’s mighty hard to get things right, that it takes an awful lot of work, organization, planning, strategizing, cunning, intelligence, skill, proper timing, connections and contacts, experience, oh, and a vast amount of repetitive practice. The last figure I heard was 10,000 hours. That seems a lot.
If you practice something for two hours a day, five days a week, that makes ten hours a week, which , in any man’s language, is a lot of practice, isn’t it? And if 10,000 is the criterion for competence, then you’re talking about 1,000 weeks, and averaging about 45 weeks a year, allowing for interruptions, holidays, illnesses, comings and goings in life, divorces, marriages and the like, that means you’re going to be practising for about 22 years to get competent.
Now if I were selling guitars, trumpets, saxophones and the like, and someone came in to buy one, because now that he’s 40, he’s decided that he’s going to play the saxophone because it’s something he always wanted to do, am I to tell him, ‘Great. You’ll be able to entertain the family soon, with lush pieces like ‘Take 5’, ‘Danny Boy’, and ‘Round Midnight’.
My customer will ask me roughly when he can expect to do this, and I’ll tell him, ‘Oh, roundabout twenty two years time.’
Hmmmm. Perhaps we should look again at some of the staple commandments and advice standards which get bandied about so loosely, and do become accepted for the reason that no one has questioned them. This goes for the Fitness world too; ‘three hours a day’, ‘seven days a week’, ‘lifted X kilogrammes on the bar last night’, ‘Ran Y miles in the fog and the rain’, ‘drank four shakes’.
There are accomplished athletes who, using the brains whoever their God is, gave them, train 20-35 minutes, four days a week, and are on top of their game. I know many non-athletes, who train 7-12 minutes a day, 2 to 3 days a week, and are superbly well, very fit, and apply themselves to their lives with remarkable success.
Success? Failure? I suppose it has its own meaning for everyone, doesn’t it?
But whatever you’re doing, make sure you do something to keep the magnificent, miraculous, inimitable body you’ve got well serviced and in good shape.
There’s a lot of talk about failure and success, especially in the business world.
People are succeeding wildly. Others are failing dismally. But not all the time. That’s why you hear talk of a ‘good year’, ‘rough year’, ‘an ok year’, and all other kinds of years.
But it’s as easy to succeed in something as it is to fail. Sometimes it’s harder to fail than it is to succeed.
A lot of that comes from our conditioning. We’ve been educated to think that it’s mighty hard to get things right, that it takes an awful lot of work, organization, planning, strategizing, cunning, intelligence, skill, proper timing, connections and contacts, experience, oh, and a vast amount of repetitive practice. The last figure I heard was 10,000 hours. That seems a lot.
If you practice something for two hours a day, five days a week, that makes ten hours a week, which , in any man’s language, is a lot of practice, isn’t it? And if 10,000 is the criterion for competence, then you’re talking about 1,000 weeks, and averaging about 45 weeks a year, allowing for interruptions, holidays, illnesses, comings and goings in life, divorces, marriages and the like, that means you’re going to be practising for about 22 years to get competent.
Now if I were selling guitars, trumpets, saxophones and the like, and someone came in to buy one, because now that he’s 40, he’s decided that he’s going to play the saxophone because it’s something he always wanted to do, am I to tell him, ‘Great. You’ll be able to entertain the family soon, with lush pieces like ‘Take 5’, ‘Danny Boy’, and ‘Round Midnight’.
My customer will ask me roughly when he can expect to do this, and I’ll tell him, ‘Oh, roundabout twenty two years time.’
Hmmmm. Perhaps we should look again at some of the staple commandments and advice standards which get bandied about so loosely, and do become accepted for the reason that no one has questioned them. This goes for the Fitness world too; ‘three hours a day’, ‘seven days a week’, ‘lifted X kilogrammes on the bar last night’, ‘Ran Y miles in the fog and the rain’, ‘drank four shakes’.
There are accomplished athletes who, using the brains whoever their God is, gave them, train 20-35 minutes, four days a week, and are on top of their game. I know many non-athletes, who train 7-12 minutes a day, 2 to 3 days a week, and are superbly well, very fit, and apply themselves to their lives with remarkable success.
Success? Failure? I suppose it has its own meaning for everyone, doesn’t it?
But whatever you’re doing, make sure you do something to keep the magnificent, miraculous, inimitable body you’ve got well serviced and in good shape.
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