Perfect Moment Monday: 10,000 Hours!

Each week I participate in Perfect Moment Monday, sponsored by the blog WeeblesWobblog.com. According to Weebles, "Perfect Moment Monday is about noticing a perfect moment rather than creating one. Perfect Moments can be momentous or ordinary or somewhere in between." And so, here is a Perfect Moment for this week.

I’ve been listening to the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point and Blink). All three are great books.

In Outliers Gladwell talks about what it takes to become an expert in any one area. The common denominator has little to do with raw talent. It boils down to how many hours a person trains and practices in her area of expertise, including sports, music, computers, etc. (of which Gladwell provides several examples).

The magic number is 10,000 hours...of practice!

Over a 10-year period, that is nearly 20 hours of practice a week at three hours a day with one day off per week. I could barely manage to practice 30 minutes a day on the piano when I was growing up.

Last week we were in Colorado Springs vacationing with family. One of our sightseeing afternoons included a trip to the Olympic Training Center. Resident athletes live on site and practice a minimum of six hours a day—either conditioning, strength training and/or practicing their specific sport. Each day becomes a precious opportunity to add to the athlete’s 10,000-hour bank toward achieving Olympic perfection.

The tour guide described it as “the athlete’s job” to train that hard every day. When we watch them on TV it’s easy to think the athletes are gifted or talented or lucky. But really, there are thousands of hours (literally) that go into every routine, game, attempt, etc.

The perfect moment for me was watching a para-Olympic athlete lift weights just as intensely as any other athlete in an attempt to be the best. Where others may complain about not having both legs, these athletes are pushing the limits of their physical and mental abilities. That is amazing!

And, seeing the athletes in training…was Perfect!

If you'd like to check out more Perfect Moment Mondays, go to Weebles Wobblog by clicking here.