What’s more important than dedicating 10,000 hours or 10 years to your craft? The way you practice.
What kind of pain are you willing to endure? You can define a person by their achievements. Perhaps the better way to define a person would be by what they are willing to endure. It may suffice to say that the most successful people undergo the greatest amounts of pain. They love the pain. They love the process.
Enjoying my own painful processes
What process do you love? For example, I’m a writer and a musician. I’m willing to spend 5-8 hours at band practice every Sunday. I’ve done this for years. Specifically, the last three years, going on four. I went to the studio for 40 hours to record my album and provide input to the producer on how I wanted the songs to sound.
I love investing time, money, and emotions into my band members and our music. The work of being a musician is more than coming up with awesome music, putting together shows, and taking pictures with new and old fans. The musician struggle is also about cooking for one another, helping each other with cars, giving encouragement, among other factors.
Kobe’s 800 shots before
I read that Kobe Bryant had a particular trainer in 2012 named Robert. He was brought in to assist Kobe with conditioning work. Just as Robert was about to drift off to sleep just after watching Casablanca, Kobe calls at 3:30 a.m.. The basketball legend asked if he was bothering Robert and that he would like some help with conditioning. The clock read 4:15 a.m.
To the trainer’s amazement, Kobe was already sweating hard at 5 a.m. Impressed, the trainer had Kobe run through some exercises for an hour and a half before retiring back at his hotel. The trainer was expected to be back at the court at 11 a.m.
When Robert arrived, he complimented Kobe on how well the training went that morning. He then asked Kobe what time he stopped conditioning. “Stop what?”, Kobe said. It turns out Kobe never stopped conditioning even after his trainer left. Kobe conditioned from 4:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. and then had practice with the rest of his team! He began his day before his trainer and most importantly, he had to make 800 shots before moving on. Kobe practiced from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m., making those 800 jump shots.
The 800 shots Kobe had to make are so vitally important because he wasn’t just blindly practicing with no goal.
Being masterful at your craft is not just about how many hours you spend practicing, by how you practice. To get better, look at how the best people in their field practice.