Photo: Veronica Louis
by Veronica Louis
9,999 hours to go!
I was first introduced to the notion of 10,000 hours in Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ album: The Heist. In their song Ten Thousand Hours (clip below), Macklemore raps: “I observed Escher, I loved Basquiat, I watched Keith Haring, you see I studied art. The greats weren’t great because at birth they could paint. The greats were great because they painted a lot.”
And voila! You have it. 10,000 hours is the theory that it takes that many hours to become successful or an expert in a field. The 10,000-hour rule was made popular in Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Outliers. In the book, through many examples he demonstrates how with time and practice experts are made not born. One of Gladwell’s more famous examples is The Beatles, and the considerable amount of time the band played together. In 1960 they were invited to play in Hamburg, Germany and there they had to play eight hours a day, seven days a week. By the end of their Germany stint, like Lennon described, they couldn’t help but get better and become more confident with the experience of playing all night long. The Beatles lyrics’ “It’s been a hard day’s night, and I’ve been working like a dog,” are a very fitting way to describe how much they worked to become The Beatles as we know them today.
While this theory might not be founded in complete science, there is something romantic almost idealistic about the idea of putting 10,000 hours into something before becoming great at it.
For the purpose of this new blog, I will adopt this theory and count down my own 10,000 hours of writing until I get to 0. At 0, I will take the power vested in me by me and declare myself an expert writer.
For the sake of accuracy, I will disregard all my previous writing written until now, and start fresh at 10,000 hours. Every week, I will keep track of my hours and post my new number on my 10,000 Hours Countdown (on the right).
This number will include my freelance writing, blog writing and novel writing and well, any other types of writing I may be doing. This is the beginning of an adventure, or rather a challenge. Will I, Veronica Louis, take on this challenge and kick ass? Will I give up? Or will I avail? Well, stay tuned, because every week is a new week and every day, rather every hour is a brand new spanking opportunity to write.
One hour down! 9,999 hours to go! Booya Kasha!
12 Comments. Leave new
Nice post. Thanks.
[…] that artists who truly don’t give a damn and are really all about the music (and put in their 10,000 hours), always seem to strive for. And then there’s an (admittedly) lower level of songcraft, from […]
[…] that artists who truly don’t give a damn and are really all about the music (and put in their 10,000 hours), always seem to strive for. And then there’s an (admittedly) lower level of songcraft, from […]
I did a little math on this. Working any regular 8 to 5 job a person might spend 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 45 weeks a year practicing their skill. Carpenter, mechanic, whatever. They will hit 10000 hours in about 8 years. And that’s about right based on my experience and the journeymen I’ve worked with.
I know! It’s going to take me at least 10 years. I guess I’m in it for the long haul. So are you saying you have already put in 10,000 hours in your craft?
Well I have been working six years on becoming the most experienced Emerald Ash Borer/American Ash tree expert by utilizing every waking hour…Thanks Joe for doing the math! I think Da Vinci said the most expert theorist pails in comparison to the one with real world observations.
Six years! Wow! I think you’ve done your 10,000 hours if you’re working every working hour. Congrats 🙂
I’m listening to Lisa Marie Johnston live in Gardnerville Nevada of all places. She is working on her 10,000. Hours and getting pretty good!
HA! That’s great! Perseverance is key, I guess 🙂
Wow, what an extraordinary challenge. All the best in fulfilling your goal. I’ve always noted the correlation between practice and time and honing one’s skill. Yet I’ve never considered the concrete aspect of an actual countdown commitment. Good luck.
Thanks for the encouragement Joann! It’s definitely a challenge because it’s going to take years until I count down to zero, but at the same time it’s a great way to gauge my growth and progression over time, where I can clearly see how far I’ve come in my writing. And because I love writing, I’m up for the challenge! Thanks again for taking the time to leave a comment.
🙂