Does your WHAT match your HOW?
Welcome back, we are already at Newsletter #12, for the year!
Can you believe it?
This year is absolutely flying, and I am loving it.
I want to cut straight to the chase today, so as always, strap in as I riff some ideas, questions, and realities that rattle around in this little peanut of a brain I have.
Question…
How much do you practice?
15 Minutes daily? 45 Minutes? Do you spend at least 1 hour every day working on the mastery of your craft?
Does 1 hour sound like a lot to you? Or does it sound like its not enough for you?
Only you can answer this, as it is very much dependent on your goals, right?
I suppose we need to get some perspective here.
I’ll be honest, if we are talking about true mastery of the craft, as in, world-class mastery of the craft, I personally don’t think even an hour, daily, is going to cut it.
Sorry. (I’m guessing you knew that though).
Look at it this way, all your influences, the guys and gals that inspired you to pick up the sticks in the first place, the people that you lose hours to on YouTube and Instagram, they ALL spend/have spent much more than 1 hour daily in pursuit of mastering their craft. It’s really the only way to get to their level of playing.
We all know this. I do, you do, we all do.
We all know how Virgil famously would practise 8-10hrs a day.
(At my best, I’ve clocked 6 hours daily for periods of time, and am currently on 2-4 hours daily, depending).
But back to your influences. How do they do this?
Well, let’s just get one thing out of the way, and acknowledge something that I’m sure we too can relate to…
They are obsessed. Without a doubt.
What else?
1. Well, firstly, they know what they want. Their goals are
cleary established. This is their WHAT.
2. Because they have committed to the process, and not only
that, but they love it, too. ALL high achievers in any field, enjoy
the process.
3. They understand, quite simply, that’s what is required, and they
don’t look back.
In simple terms, their WHAT and their HOW are perfectly aligned.
I’ll level with you. I think realistically, if you want to attain world-class mastery of this instrument, you should actually be aiming for more like 3-5hrs, daily.
And Every.Single.Day.
*The crowd gasps*
I truly feel that way.
I think 1 hour a day is pretty standard TBH. It’s an achievement, yes, but it’s very doable.
For the people that DO do regular practice, this is where most of them hang out – at 1 hour a day.
And sure, when I teach someone how to turn on their ‘regular practice’ muscle, I do start by making the point that –
‘Some minutes are better than no minutes’.
And it’s true.
This is simply to help build up the idea of showing up, daily. To teach consistency.
Its done by lowering the barrier of entry so low that you just need to pick your sticks up, daily, to start making progress.
In terms of practice time, 20 minutes daily is a good start, but if you truly want to be in the 1%, unfortunately not even 1 hour a day is not going to cut it.
Now, hang on, let’s not ‘throw the baby out with the bath water’ here. I’m not saying that if you can’t manage 3-5 hours a day, then why bother… not at all. Of course not.
Once again, I’m just trying to get across the point, does your what match your how?
Are you being realistic?
Let’s look at that 20 minutes, daily.
There are 365 days in a year, and even if you just managed to pick up your sticks for just 20 minutes a day, that is still infinitely better than nothing. We know this.
Let’s do the math…
20 minutes x 365 = 7,300minutes, or 121 hours.
That’s something, right? You’ll definitely make some progress with that.
That’s 3 x 40 hour work weeks put towards your craft.
But you won’t get to mastery. But maybe thats not the goal?
Let’s simplify the approach.
What we are aiming for first, is just the benefit of accumulative practice. Showing up daily.
It’s been proven time and time again that you are much better off doing something daily, rather than 1 – 2 longer sessions scattered throughout the week.
So, your current (and patchy) 2-3 days a week, DEFINITELY won’t cut it, if you truly want to go to the next level.
But you already know this. Of course you do.
There is no other way around it.
So, the daily act of… {enter specific area of development here}… that’s how to do it.
Daily.
And if you DID want to get to mastery? I sure as hell know I do…
Well, this has to work in stages, especially if you aren’t even currently getting those sticks in your hands every day.
So, Step 1.
Get the sticks in your hands, daily – rain, hail, or shine. This is not a question, this is just something you do. The sticks make contact with your hands, DAILY.
Step 2.
Start with 20 minutes a day, of true dedicated practice. Eg. Mechanics, foot technique, building up the conversation between the hands and feet, working on your facility etc. Whatever your goals desire.
(I will add at this point, that when I mention all those areas in which to develop, you quickly see how 20 minutes just won’t cut it.)
Step 3.
1 hour of dedicated practice, daily. This is a positive step forward, but we still aren’t there yet. For progress yes, but not for mastery.
1 hour sounds like a lot, but once again, break it down to the areas you need to work on, and it disappears pretty quickly.
And then finally, Step 4.
Getting our ‘practice muscle’ up to where 3-5hrs a day is just a given, its what you do, its apart of your life, and not something that’s up for discussion. Its one of you daily non-negotiables.
Now hang on, before you accuse me of not being practical here, before we go down that path, let’s just crunch the numbers on that… To build the hype on it a little.
And also, I’m not telling you what to do, I’m purely stating what it would require to be world-class. Thats it. Just opinions and talking points. Remember that.
So, for the sake of this equation, let’s average 3-5 hours out to a reasonable 3 hours of daily practice –
3 hours x 365days = 1095 hours!
You can do a lot with 3 hours daily.
You could break it into –
1 hour on hand mechanics – dynamic control and speed.
1 hour on foot technique – strengthening your single kick control.
1 hour on facility and creativity – strengthening the conversation between the hands and feet.
Man, with a schedule like that, there is absolutely no doubt your playing would go through the roof!
Look at what the author Malcolm Gladwell said about mastery, in his book ‘Outliers’ –
“Ten thousand hours is the magic number of mastery.”
It’s a simple premise, but it’s true. Also, I highly recommend that book, its fantastic.
Success leaves clues.
So, if today was day 1, and we did 3 hours a day, it would take us roughly only 10 years to get there. Not bad.
BUT! Guess what? We have already been playing for some time now, so we are already well into our 10,000 hours! Bonus.
So… the next thing to address here is your issue with me suggesting that 3 hours daily is even possible, given life’s responsibilities.
Well look, it is, of course it is, in some shape or form, but your life situation is not for me to figure out. It’s for you to figure out. You just need to crack your code.
You could pitch me any life situation, and I believe I could help you figure out a way to get to that point. It’s always possible.
And again, I’m not telling you what to do, I’m just telling you that it’s possible.
Let’s just zoom back for a second, and get back to the true meaning behind all this.
What I’m really asking is, does your goal or vision for yourself as a player, align with the effort you’re currently putting in, or are willing to put in?
Thats all.
Please just take a few seconds and think about that.
There is no wrong answer here.
Your goals are your goals.
What I don’t want is for people to say they desperately want to be a ‘world-class’ player, but as it stands, are only logging 3 lots of 30 minutes of practice a week.
In this example, the what and how are very much not aligned.
Let’s be real, this would actually be considered delusional.
Have a clear understanding of the person and player you want to become, and be realistic about what is truly required to achieve that.
Make sure they align.
Often our ‘goals’ don’t align with the effort, and it’s important to acknowledge that, otherwise you stay in the same place, and in a constant state of disappointment, as you’ll never quite get there.
Just be realistic.
When the required workload isn’t in proportion to the goal, it’s not actually a goal, it’s just a dream.
Have a think about your what, then have a good think about your how, and then ask yourself…
Does your WHAT match your HOW?
I always appreciate your feedback. I read all of them. So please, send any thoughts through that you may have, and get a dialogue going.
Stay Hungry, see you next week.
Stan
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