What about the 10,000 hours?

10,000?

Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers, made 10,000 hours famous as the number of hours of practice it takes for a person to attain a level of mastery that we would recognize as amazing.... Michael Phelps, Yo Yo Ma, The Beatles, Tiger Woods, etc.  In The Talent Code, Daniel Coyle also talks about 10,000 hours as part of the 3 factors that create excellence:  # of hours of deliberate practice, internal ignition or motivation, and great coaching/feedback.  (Fascinating reads, great stories, both highly recommended).

So what about it?  Do we keep track of the hours we train?  Should we expect mastery as we get closer to the 10,000?  (It's about 10 years of year round training).  Why don't some people who spend many hours not succeed as well as others who spend less?  What's so magic about the 10,000 number?  Are there any shortcuts to success?

The real principle is not so much the quantity of hours but the quality of them. It's about the power of focused, engaged, intentional effort.  It can even be about high quality "play", experimenting, fooling around, inventing games, competing, copying, like kids do when they're messing around on their own with a soccer ball or basketball, making up songs on their musical instruments, playing pick-up hockey for hours at the local ice rink, or playing in a pool all day just for fun.  Real learning doesn't always happen around lessons or coached sessions or carefully planned practice sessions.  Playtime actually increases motivation and inspiration and internal desire and enjoyment, which keeps you going for 10,000 hours.  When you add in great coaching with immediate insightful challenging feedback, then you really can learn and improve.

When we spend an hour in autopilot, just plunking away at a piano piece until our time is up, or reluctantly swimming back and forth because our parents made us come, that doesn't add to the magic of the 10,000 hours.  When we spend 10 minutes totally focused on learning a new skill, bring goals and intention to doing whatever we are currently doing (even when it is intense play!), THAT is the quality of practice that leads to mastery.