The discipline of practice
It is one of life’s basic principles, worth learning early in life: to be excellent at something requires us to add practice to our natural talent. I’m not much good at golf, but that’s hardly surprising because I only play golf occasionally.
The author, Malcom Gladwell, in his bestseller, Outliers, claimed that excellence could not be gained unless 10,000 hours of practice had taken place. He said the difference between outstanding violin players and average ones was that the excellent players had logged over 10,000 hours of practice. Evidently, this magical 10,000 hours was reportedly behind the success of the Beatles, Bill Gates and several other household luminaries whose skill level has now made them household names. This is disappointing news for those that want to be considered excellent at something, if only irregular and ‘going through the motions’ practice has occurred.
Some comfort can be taken from the fact that not everyone agrees with the 10,000-hour theory. However, the research is clear that whatever practice does occur is generally considered to be inadequate unless it is ‘purposeful practice’; that is, structured or modelled practice that leads to improvement. This means, for example, your music, sport or study session is not necessarily effective after a set period of time, but rather only if the practice leads to improved proficiency, one session or lesson at a time.
It is only when we discipline ourselves to put in the hours, it is only when we work on what we can’t do, will progress happen. This takes a disciplined mindset and a determination to work hard. But deliberate and intentional work now can lead to great rewards later. This is a lesson worth learning early in life and one which we seek to instil in our young people at Northholm Grammar. The partnership of staff, parents and students in the development of this life skill is both a noble exercise and one which we take great delight in procuring together.
