How long does it take for peak performers to achieve mastery in their chosen field?
Common thinking suggests that it takes around ten thousand hours of practice. This idea is based on the research of psychologist Anders Ericsson and made popular by Malcom Gladwell in his book “Outliers”.
Ericsson’s research, published in 1993, was on “The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance”. From this, Gladwell appears to be arguing that the violinists in the study had all put in ten thousand hours of practice and achieved mastery.
Gladwell then extrapolates this argument by estimating that the Beatles had put in about ten thousand hours of practice in the early days of their career while playing gigs in Hamburg. In another example, he says that Bill Gates probably put in around ten thousand hours of programming practice to gain the necessary skills to found and develop Microsoft.
He then takes this argument a stage further. He suggests that the same rule applies in essentially every field of human endeavour and that if you want to achieve mastery in your chosen field, you need to put in ten thousand hours of practice.
Whilst this sounds plausible, we now know that this isn’t the case and even Ericsson suggests that Gladwell has oversimplified the science behind the research.
Ericsson clarified his research in a later book, “Peak: Secrets from the new science of expertise”. In this, he explains that there is nothing special about putting in ten thousand hours of work. He says this is just a nice easy number to remember.
What Ericsson and his colleagues found was that by the time they were twenty years old, the most accomplished violin students in the study had put in an average of ten thousand hours of practice. He also points out that they were by no means masters at this time. Instead, they were promising students who may very well go on to mastery but they still had a long way to go.
Ericsson further explains that the number of hours of deliberate practice that someone needs to put in, to achieve mastery, will vary depending on the skill being practiced. His research has been duplicated with golfers, but he fully accepts that it is not applicable to every field of endeavour.
So, what does this mean for you, if you’re a peak performer trying to achieve mastery in a particular activity?
Does the interpretation of the research actually matter?
After all, I’m sure we can all agree that regardless of the actual number, it takes a huge amount of effort to become a master in any field. And, the more we practice, the better we will become at our chosen activity.
Well, yes, in my opinion the number does matter. If you think it takes ten thousand hours of practice to become world-class at something, this could be very off-putting. Some people may never start working towards their goals and dreams if they believe this is what it takes.
Also, even if someone does put in ten thousand hours of practice, there’s no guarantee this will lead to mastery. If they approach those ten thousand hours in the wrong way, they could waste huge amounts of time in the process.
So, what’s the alternative?
In my opinion, there’s a much more productive way of approaching this. Rather than debating how long it takes to achieve mastery, a better question to ask is, “How do you achieve mastery as quickly as possible”?
As you know, there are no hacks or shortcuts to success, but most people make it more difficult than it needs to be. So, if you want to achieve mastery as quickly as possible, this is what you need to do.
(I’m assuming, of course, that you have already set your goals and are clear about what you are aiming to achieve. If not, this is something you need to work out first and you can find out more information about this process by clicking here.)
First, be aware of linearity bias. This is the rate at which we think we will make progress compared to how our levels of performance will actually improve. For most skills, our progress will follow a logarithmic curve rather than seeing linear progression.
This means that initially, we make progress quicker than expected but, over time, our rate of progress naturally slows down. The more we improve, the smaller the increments of progression we will see. If we don’t understand this, it’s easy to give up, thinking that something has gone wrong or that we’re not cut out for the task at hand.
For a more detailed explanation of linearity bias, please see this blog on “Why making small daily improvements is not the formula for success.”
Second, just showing up and putting in the hours of practice is not enough. When you practice, you need to focus on what Anders Ericsson calls “deliberate practice”.
Deliberate practice has three conditions:
- The learner must be using the very best method of practice. Trial and error is not effective. Explicit instructions on exactly what to do are essential and this is where coaching can rapidly increase your results.
- The learner must have immediate feedback on how they are performing. When you receive immediate feedback, you can adjust your technique and make corrections much quicker to avoid wasting time. Again, a coach can provide this feedback.
- The learner must repeat the task over and over again.
However, there’s also debate over just how repetition is required before mastery can be achieved. And this introduces the argument about whether you should be a specialist or a generalist.
David Epstein challenged the specialism rule in his book “Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialised World”. Epstein’s research found that generalists usually outperformed specialists in the long run.
Steven Kotler also challenged the specialism theory in his book “The Rise of Superman”. This book looked at the abilities of athletes in action and adventure sports and how they progressed over a period of thirty years, without following the normal rules of peak performance.
What Kotler found was there wasn’t much repetition at all. The very nature of these sports meant that the athletes were experiencing a great deal of variety. They weren’t repeating the same exercises over and over again.
There’s also a growing body of research suggesting that too much specialism, and especially too much specialism too early, can lead to burnout. This makes long-term, sustained success almost impossible.
Finally, if you really want to reach mastery in the quickest time possible you need to accelerate your rate of learning. To do this, you need to get your biology operating optimally and this means being in a flow state. (You can find out more about flow states by clicking here.)
A study on snipers, marksmen and archers by Darpa (part of the US Department of Defence) and Advanced Brain Monitoring (a neuro-diagnostic device company) found that skill acquisition was 50% faster when students were in flow.
Being in a flow state can help increase the rate of learning because the neurochemicals released whilst you are in flow essentially “tag” the learning experiences as important. This helps move them from our short-term memory to our long-term memory.
Also, when we’re in flow, the task becomes “autotelic”. This means we carry out the task for the enjoyment of carrying out the task itself, rather than for some future reward. So, this means we’re more inclined to carry on with it. We become more focused and more motivated to continue with the task and the amount of time it takes to achieve mastery drops considerably.
You may have experienced this yourself. Think about some of your most memorable learning experiences. Chances are, you were in flow at the time and had a potent cocktail of neurochemicals flooding through your system. That’s why you remember the experience now.
So, in conclusion, if you want to become a peak performer, forget the ten thousand hours rule. This is just an arbitrary number and bears no relevance to what you are trying to achieve. The amount of time it takes you to achieve mastery will depend on the task itself, your starting point and the time and resources you have available to dedicate to it.
If you’re looking for the fastest route to mastery:
- You need to have a clear understanding of what you are trying to achieve;
- You need to be aware of linearity bias and understand the rate at which progress will occur;
- You need to put in a considerable number of hours of deliberate practice;
- You need to accelerate your rate of learning; and
- You need to be able to regularly and consistently access a flow state.
