Mastery it is

After LifeClever posted on mastery and the time needed to master any skill (or set of skills), suggesting also to break down the mastery process into five levels, so that

• Level 1: Novice (2,000 hours)
• Level 2: Apprentice (4,000 hours)
• Level 3: Journeyman (6,000 hours)
• Level 4: Adept (8,000 hours)
• Level 5: Master (10,000 hours)

As a matter of fact, people have been doing that for thousands of years, achieving and recognizing steps to mastery. Looks good, whether you think of learning to play an instrument, or mastering meditation, or a more complex skill such as running an organization. At the end of his article, Moldawer wisely observes,

"As you probably know, the better you are at something, the worse you think you are, at least in the early stages. A lousy writer will often think his own writing is just fine. As you gain in skill, your eye improves and the flaws in your writing become apparent. This can be paralyzing: your eye always improves faster than your hand. Getting over that hump can be difficult in any skill, but if practice duration is your goal instead of quality, the going will be a lot less stressful. Eventually, your performance will begin to catch up with your taste."

Soon enough, Duff McDuffee - philosopher, life coach, yogin - wrote:

"From what I've seen, this is true. This means that we are unlikely to master very many things! For it would take 5 years of 5.5 hours a day of practice, or 10 years of 2.75 hours a day of practice to master something by this formula. Great musicians practice at least this much, if not double. My friends in the conservatory of music would practice 5-10 hours a day, in addition to music theory classes and ensemble practice. The best practice more, and have natural passion and talent, and practice more intelligently too. What one thing would you like to master? What is your life purpose and passion?"

Great! Now we can ponder on the art of practicing well! Ryan Oelke takes cue and gives two tips that can help those 10,000 hours turn into something worthwhile:

1. How You Practice Matters. 10,000 hours can be spent effectively and effeciently training and learning or recreating the wheel and doing sloppy practice. In fact, I find this to be the most important aspect in learning a skill set. :: Find a good teacher who can make every hour of practice and learning count.

2. Consistency is the Foundation. 10,000 hours spent over 50 years is NOT the same as 10,000 hours spent over 5. There is a cumulative effect in fully dedicating ourselves to the skill set we are aiming to master. If you look at renowned masters, they seem to live, eat, and breath that skill set and their practice; in fact, they might seem super human to us because of their passion and diligence to their practice. Now, I don't want to make mastery seem impossible because it isn't:) Far from it. The point is that we have to look beyond the number of 10,000 hours for true mastery, albeit a seemingly undeniable truth in and of itself.

Ryan invites us to offer additional mastery tips, advice, or experience. And Vincent Horn offers his own two cents, while inviting us to go deep:

"The one thing I’ve devoted the most time to is to formal meditation practice. From the little over 5 years practicing daily about an hour a day + the 6 1/2 months of full time practice I’d say I’ve spent about 4,000 hours meditating thus far, and I could totally see it taking near to 10,000 hours to really see having a handle on some of this stuff. That being said, it is amazing to see how hours in really do equal results out. Without getting to reductionistic about it, I do really think that looking at mastery in these terms makes anything possible, though one doesn’t have the time for everything (at least not until radical life extension becomes a reality) and so we have to narrow some of it down and go deep. Here’s to mastery!"

Mastery, after all, is a matter of persistent practice, relying on a time-tested map and/or a guide as far as these can take you, moved by passion, sometimes prompted by mad, irrational determination, and persevering - without stopping - until it's done. My own tip is quite simple, actually:

Why you practice matters, immensely. Enjoy the journey.

Do you have anything to add to this effort of wording the art of practicing well? Any thoughts? Comment here or blog at your place. Spread the word!

Plus, a selection on mastery from WIE:

• 27,000 miles to buddhahood
  
• The ultimate black belt test
• Orchestrating our many selves
• Just do it!
• Excellence is not enough
• Why women don't like the word "mastery"