Here’s a deep thought for you: Are you interested in studying Experts and Masters or are you interested in becoming one?
Aristotle said that excellence is a habit. He was right. Deep practice is basically the best possible way to practice. It is the process to acquire a certain skill. It is deliberate and focused, and when one invests a considerable amount of time – say 10.000 hours or 10 years of silence – it leads to world-class skill.
No one is born as a genius. Geniality comes as an investment of time and energy on a subject of preference. This continuous persistence is deliberate and it is manifested even without consciousness of its presence. It’s like practicing without knowing it. It’s like joyfully whistle a tune while you’re at the shower not realising that this action will engrave the tune in your memory, ears and aural imagination.
A genius is born out of pure hard work, a kind of work that simply makes a person happy. There’s no such thing as born talent. If and when the object of practice is natural, constant and deliberate it will be revealed in any kind of practical form.
Think of a child joyfully playing. Now imagine that the same child is not actually playing – aka: having fun – with toys, but with instruments, musical instruments. This child is deep practicing playing music. This child is actually firing brain circuits into the skill acquiring process through a joyful activity that he or she doesn’t even consider as “hard work”. It’s just fun and play and it’s something that makes him or her happy.
Genius happens disregarding who you are and only considers what you do.
The inner response to a certain skill acquiring process is fundamental to sparkle deep practicing. Will power, time, energy and persistence combined with an “Apprenticeship System” can be the perfect combination to grow talent.
When an apprentice works directly under one Master’s tutelage and supervision he gains an advantage: The opportunity to learn through action. Not through lecture or theory, but through action.
Cooperation and competitiveness, then, become fundamental to sparkle creativity and imagination of the disciple. The disciple grows into becoming the new Master, which promotes a chain of mentoring able to sustain and expand the artistry at hand.
So, the manifestation of interest in studying Experts and Masters is, actually, the first step at becoming one. Learn from the masters and soon his light will propel your own.
For more on the subject check “The Talent Code”, by Daniel Coyle