The Only Effective Way to Develop Your Talent

Have you heard of the 10,000 Hour Rule?

Malcolm’s Gladwell talks about it in his book Outliers. He says you need 10,000 hours of practice to become a master at something.

Tony Robbins says the best are not the most talented, but those who practice the most.

Michael Jordan continued to shoot baskets every day even after he become a pro.

If you want to be a great writer, you’ve got to write a lot.

Quality comes from quantity.

I can attest to the value of practice when it comes to basketball.

I had a basketball goal in my driveway when I was in school. All year round, day after day, even before and after rain or the occasional snow, I would go out there and pitch the ball over and over.

I threw from close up and far away. To the left of the basket and to the right. I even took shots from up the embankment behind the basket just to see if I could ring it.

One afternoon my cousin came to visit. She challenged me to a game of 21.

I was ready.

She was good. With every shot everywhere on the court, she was able to match every shot I scored.

Then I got audacious.

I went to about center court, turned around so my back faced the basket, and leaned back so I could see it upside down. I then hurled the ball toward the backboard.

Swish.

My cousin’s jaw dropped.

It was the only shot she couldn’t make.

I had practiced that shot hundreds of time in the countless afternoons after school. Today it paid off big time.

Challenge yourself every day.

Practice is good, but it’s not enough.

When I took the same shot over and over, I reached the point where I could “feel” exactly what it would take to make the ball swish. I knew just how high to hurl the ball. I knew just how hard to push it. I had felt the muscle movements and seen the target enough times that I had a mental set of scopes that would help me ring the basket more times than I missed it.

Call it instinct if you wish. In a real sense, it was. But it was instinct that was forged after thousands of shots and hours of practice.

As a teenager, I got bored with taking the same old shots day after day. So I’d push every limit I could think of to see if I could ring the basket.

You can do the same thing with your writing. Play with how you arrange words. Explore impossible ideas in your journal — and pretend they are possible. Write stories you wish were true — and picture yourself living your dreams after you’ve paid your dues.

Here are a few exercises to hone your skills.

·        Write an in-depth piece on a topic, but limit yourself to 400 words.

·        Write a song or poem where every sentence of a verse starts with the same letter.

·        Write about how you’d get out of a room after you’ve painted yourself into a corner.

The impossible is possible if you’re willing to do whatever it takes to push yourself through.

Challenge yourself. You’ll be amazed at the resources you already have sleeping inside you.

Publish often.

In the 30 Posts in 30 Days Challenge here on Medium, we’re submitting something to publish every day.

Call it practicing in public.

That’s what doctors and lawyers call their work — practice.

We don’t think of it that way. After all, didn’t these experts spend 7 or 8 years in school to learn everything?

Sure, they learned a lot. The most important skill they learn is one we all should learn and apply, no matter our profession. Know what it is?

The ability to identify and solve problems.

Nobody knows it all. Every day brings new, unexpected challenges. Your ability to see something a different way, to explore things from every angle, is what will make you sharp, talented, and extraordinary.

The more you practice, the better you get. The more you practice in public, the faster you’ll develop talent. When you test what you know in front of real people, it’s only then that you really know it works.

Are you up for the challenge?

Yesterday, a group of writers committed to write and publish 30 posts in 30 days here on Medium. If you’d like to join us, just tag your posts with #30Posts30Days

However you decide to participate, we’re glad to have you join us.

Now start practicing and raise your writing to new and unprecedented heights. Stretch yourself to greatness. We need the best of you there is. It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it.