Mastering Something In 10 Days; Do You Buy?

If only people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all. – Michelangelo

Truly, if only people knew. But how can they, with so many blog posts, books and tutorials promising to teach them mastering a skill in just 7 days, 2 days, and some even few hours? When I was in my teens, it used to be a ‘couple of months’. The number of days to master a skill seems to be dwindling every year.

The truth, sorry to say, is not so miraculous.

There is one approach to master a skill and virtually the only one:

• Learn:

  About it. Watch, read, listen, and ask about anything and everything that’s related to it. Learning and knowledge is the first step to achieve it.

• Do it:

  Do it again, and again, and again. Here, you start understanding it. Forget about the quality or the level of mastery, because at this stage, you are miserable. But remember, you are learning.

• Keep doing it:

  and after about a year or two you will be good at it. I said good, not a master. To achieve mastery, you need to…

• Do some more:

  By the time you reach this stage, you have made most of the common mistakes and more importantly, learned from it. You aren’t anxious about committing mistakes because of two reasons. First, you are used to it and secondly, you make very few now. This is the time ascend from ‘goodness’ to ‘greatness’.

Swallow the fact that it takes about 5 to 10 years to master a skill, purely depending on how much time you spend doing it. According to few experts, it takes about 10,000 hours to achieve mastery, but I seriously don’t believe it. It vastly varies from person to person, their skills, and many other aspects.

For instance, I have been trying to master the art of blogging. I wrote my first article about 5 years ago, but I am still

learning and I know I have much more to learn. You have to try it, commit mistakes, learn, do some more, learn some more. That’s when you understand it. Gradually, you become good and then comes a time, if you are still doing it, when you are great at it.

Ask any master, any professional about his journey of mastering his skill and he will gladly disclose the fact; the fact that it takes many years of hard work, consistency, passion and learning to become a master. It demands passion, it demands aspiration, it demands doing and more doing.

So the bottom-line is: do it and do it with fun. Don’t get disheartened, you are just a beginner. Enjoy it like we all did. Do it, learn it, like it, love it, and live it. That’s they only way to achieve mastery and I declare this openly, to the world.

Get the passion and start doing it without wasting time. And do not, I repeat, do not buy the book or subscribe the post that promises to teach you a skill in a day, or even a month. They are hoaxers with a hand in your wallet.

Keep doing it without thinking of giving up. You will succeed. Brain Tracy once said “Never consider the possibility of failure; as long as you persist, you will be successful.”