When we are young, we dream to achieve the best possible level of talent and understanding of a particular domain we have grown to be fond of. None of us ever aspire to be mediocre. Maybe some simply don't have the time or will power and others don't have an idea how, but here at The Perfect Male Blog we would, at least, like to provide you with the latter.
Benjamin Bloom, who wrote in 1985, Developing Talent in Young People, found that of all the outstanding performers they studied, all shared the peculiarity of having three things: having studied with devoted teachers, a diligent practice schedule throughout their lives, and the very important quality of being supported by their families enthusiastically.
The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance, is a book that holds a compilation of studies like the one made by Benjamin Bloom and over 100 other leading scientist who have studied expertise in various realms of human life. Here we have gathered from that book three of the most important things that actually make a person achieve expertise:
- Deliberate Practice: There is a big difference between going with your friends for a golf outing and practicing shots from the same spot over and over again. When you go for a round with your friends you do not get the chance to make a shot more than once from each spot. With this you are only inhibiting the chance to learn how you can modify your shot to make it better.
- Know It Takes Time: Leo Tolstoy, one of the greatest writers of the past century, once observed how people told him they did not know if they could write a novel because they had never tried to - as if it really were that simple. There is not one expert out there who has made it to where he is today if it weren't for a great amount of training and preparation.
- Nothing Can Beat a Good Coach: Having the right mentor can actually accelerate the learning process. It is said that a person needs of 10 years (10,000 hours) of practice to become a real expert at something, with the right coach this may be reduced.
I must warn you, most people think that, for example in writing, all you need to improve at is vocabulary and the ability to place words nicely, but they forget all the other intangible qualities a writer must have like the ability to plan ahead and think through ill-structured problems. Or for that matter, the common misconception that a good leader only needs to be smart and have charisma, but what about the importance of body language?
Further down the road we will dig a little deeper about the specifics in each of the realms of human knowledge on how to become an expert. If you would like to learn more of a particular domain, let us know about it and we might make sure we include a post on the subject.
Pictures via bubblywums and nouxz.
Pictures via bubblywums and nouxz.
