Are you a Master Coach? Only 10,000 hours to Mastery…how ’bout it?
Posted by Melody Campbell on July 29, 2009 · 5 Comments
The story of success can be created in about 10,000 hours.
Yep, thats it. Just 10,000 hours to mastery of just about anything. That’s approximately 4 hours a day, only 5 days a week…every single one of the 52 weeks in the year…for the next 10 years! Wow!
In Malcome Gladwell’s book The Outliers - (outliers - the people who lie on the outside of ordinary experiences. People who have achieved amazing results.) Gladwell talks about this in his book “The Outliers: The Story of Success”; he references a study done by scientists that discovered that violin students who practiced 3 to 4 hours a day, with increase in hours over 20 years, students who practiced an accumulation of 10,000 where the masterful players, with those students who only played an accumulation of 8,000 hours were merely “really good players”.
He defines failure as “not getting your 10,000 hours in” – doesn’t mean that your not good, but you just need to put more hours into perfecting your passion.
Gladwell talks about the Beatles. Early in their career they played eight hours a night, seven days a week – by the time they hit it big they had performed 1200 times – more than most bands play in their entire careers!
I read that Anthony Robbins wrote in his book Awaken the Giant, writes about how he booked himself 3 times a day to anyone would listen. When other speakers would speak maybe 48 times in a year – Tony would have spoken that many times in two weeks! With the 10,000 hour rule Tony gave him self a decades worth of growth as a motivational speaker in just one year – by comparison to his peers. This practiced catapulted him way ahead of other speakers.
One of my own personal practices is that I am always coaching. When I started my business, and no one was hiring me because I was new and my confidence was not greater than my clients need – I coached for free – in exchange for feedback. This is a powerful business building tool.
- Builds Mastery of your Coaching Method
- Gives you insight into the needs of your ideal prospect
- Exercises your creative problem solving skills
- Increases your intuitive skills
- Boosts your confidence
- Bonus – record and edit your sessions (depending on the nature of the content) and create books, classes, blog posts, articles, and more!
Don’t worry about clients not wanting to pay you – trust me the more you coach – the better you become and your clients will be begging to exchange value with you.
Even now I do what I call “tithe coaching”, that is I give away an hour of no cost, no strings coaching as a gift to my Creator on behalf of the gift He has given me in the passion for coaching. At the end of the session my clients always ask me, “what can I do for You?” Some want to continue and hire me on the spot – everyone turns in to raving evangelists for the value they’ve received.
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I like this so much Melody! I like that it is really as easy as 10,000 hours. That feels so doable to do 4 hours a day. Also, this gives us coaches a vision for commitment to our skill and our profession.
Imagine where we will be 10 years from now with this information.
Iyabo Asani
Hey Melody! Thanks for this.
I love the idea that practice makes perfect but I disagree with “He defines failure as “not getting your 10,000 hours in” – doesn’t mean that your not good, but you just need to put more hours into perfecting your passion”.
IMHO, there is nothing called failure.
It’s honing your skills and craft, yes, but to say you’re a master after 10,000 and not before, Uh Oh that screams limiting belief to me. Yes, the more one coaches and speaks, the more confidence one has and the finer the skills get AND the reverse is also true – the more confident one is, the better their skills get.
Confidence can be created through practice and knowledge and it can also be created by acting as if. And what’s a master anyways … the word is loaded, like “expert”
The old sages in India were wise cos they knew, the day they started thinking of themselves as masters of something or that they knew it all, was the day they weren’t ‘masters’ anymore. Just a different perspective I wanted to share.
I understand the perspective that Tia is coming from but I also love the commitment and passion that 10,000 hours speaks too. What I liked about this post is that I find that many people believe, in the law of attraction world, that not much action needs to be taken.
For me the goal is not so much mastery but the sheer joy of being in your passion for 10,000 hours! Wow. That blows my mind, to still feel passionate about something after 10,000 hours.
Iyabo
Yes, Tia, I understand what you mean about limiting beliefs – but there does seem be be a recognizable difference in someone who has dedicated their energy in devotion to a particular passion. And, yes, I agree there is no such thing as “failure” only quitting – I think that is what Mr. Gladwell was attempting to communicate when he said there was no real “failure” just not enough time applied to mastery.
There are many examples of those that have devoted themselves to their passion for the “10,000 hours” and place themselves in the small percentage of the population that does -whatever it is – extremely well. Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Anthony Robbins, and many others I’m sure I don’t know the name of.
Let’s put it in another light – what about a physician that has performed 10,000 hours worth of successful surgery – let’s say brain surgery – the doctor with 10,000 hours of successful surgery is going to make me feel a lot more comfortable.
Rarely do we see someone who achieves the amount of excellence without the practice that builds the neural pathways for the brain to send the energy, that we see with the person who has over time build the excellence thru practice, and more practice.
There are some exciting stories of research that show the brain creates the same neural pathways with visualization as with actual physical practice. It’s amazing. I will dig that story up and create a post on that as well.
Oh I’m ALL for practicing, practicing, practicing. Just that I wouldn’t necessarily put a number on the hours needed for “mastery” – it will be different for each person depending on their particular strengths and abilities