Last year I had the opportunity to teach one of my nephews how to tie his shoes. He understood the mechanics of it quickly, but got frustrated when he couldn't get it done right away. I told him there was no need to get frustrated, he needed to try it 100 times to become good at it, and if he still didn't get it, fine, he could feel the frustration then. He looked at me in disbelief and asked “one hundred times?”, and I said yes. When I saw him again the next day, he was already a pro. I don't know if he kept practicing it, 100 times could have been an exaggeration on my part.
Since then, I've been thinking about the things I gave up trying, sure I would never get it. A simple example is making rice. In my lifetime, I think I've tried to cook rice about five times, and failed miserably every time. Since the experience with my nephew, I told myself that I couldn't give up on making rice forever, though my latest attempt also failed.
The same can be applied to business skills, to marketing, and to mastering any craft, or anything that you want to accomplish. You may have have heard about the 10,000 hours rule of dedication to become the master in one's craft, which was mentioned in Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers. Are you willing to invest your time, dedication, commitment, into whatever it is you wish you already knew, you wish you could do with ease and grace?
How about committing yourself to a 100-day challenge, of practicing your craft, your marketing muscles, your networking strategies, your meditation efforts, your passion, your joy? What is it that you desire the most? What in you needs the daily dedication? Feel free to share in the comments below, and I invite you to commit yourself to taking one action, one lesson, one step a day to achieving it, starting on August 20th. That's when I start my own.
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