10,000 Hours of Practice

Much has been written about what it takes to be great at anything.  In Malcolm Gladwell's book, The Outliers, he talks about how great artists and writers and musicians and yes, even business people get great at what they do.  They put in the time.  10,000 hours sounds like a lot but when you think about the people in our society that really excel, it's probably a drop in the bucket.

When you think about the great athletes that we have loved to cheer on, consider the hours and hours and years of practice that brought them to where they are. When you consider the books that you have read and loved, consider the months and often years that the writer put in to create that piece of work.

Right now, I am part of a production of Oklahoma with a local theater group.  Doing theater is one of the great passions in my life.There are a a number of reasons for that.  But this time, I have been thinking a lot about the responsibility that I feel and the challenge we have all set for ourselves.  We are a collection of people from all walks of life, from different towns, from different age groups with different levels of experience. Yet we come together with the same goal which is to work hard, to unite as an ensemble and to ultimately delight our audiences.  Perhaps most important is that we do all the above and have fun while doing it. In this particular production, I have a fairly significant role which means that I've had to work especially hard on learning my lines and my blocking and choreography.  I have felt an enormous responsibility to my fellow actors and indeed to the entire production team to show up ready to do my part, to remember where I'm supposed to be and what I'm supposed to be doing. This is not trivial in the midst of a busy life and alongside a demanding job.  How much room is there left in my personal RAM?  Seriously.

We are heading into the final stretch... what we call "Tech week" in the trade.  It starts tomorrow and goes right until we open next weekend.  We will sweat the details of sound and lights and hair and makeup and props and cues.  We will continue to discover our characters and the relationships that we have on stage with the other actors.  We will not rest until we reach the finish line?

Have we put in 10,000 hours?  No.  Have I put in 10,000 in my lifetime, learning to sing and to dance and to be on stage with my fellow actors.  Absolutely.  I could sit back now and relax, with a hope and a prayer that we've rehearsed enough and all will be well.  But that's not what I'm planning to do. I am going to keep going over my script and my choreography.  I'm going to think about our little patch of farmland in Oklahoma and the assortment of characters that inhabit it. I'm going to ponder what it means for the farmer and cowman to be friends.  I'm going to smile as I listen to the glorious music that Rogers and Hammerstein wrote so many years ago.  Now there was a writing team that put in 10,00 hours and then some.  Aren't we lucky that there are dedicated people in our world who put in so much effort?

I applaud them whether they be artists, technologists, educators or business people.  Sure there are those among us with extraordinary, natural talent who make it all look
easy.   But most of us just need to put our heads down for much of the time and grind it out.  Would that it could always be as much fun as doing a wonderful show like Oklahoma. YeHaw!