This is a story I’ve told before, but I can’t imagine a better way to start blogging….
A director I worked with back in university had spent time with the late, great mime legend, Marcel Marceau, when she was younger. He told her that to be the best at anything, one needed to do it for eight hours a day– at least. When you think of how long we spend engaging in activities we don’t like (such a work for eight hours a day), imagine how good we’re becoming at things we hate!
Recently I read Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers. Among other things, he explores the ’10,000 hour rule’. The amount of time it is hypothesized to take before achieving a solid level of competence in your chosen field. Bill Gates, Marie Curie, Wayne Gretzky, Richard Branson, Jane Austen, Marlon Brando, Meryl Streep – you name it. Each of these people will all have spent a significant amount of time immersed in their chosen profession and – if they were/are anything like me – eight hours a day doesn’t come near the hours put in.
24 (hrs/day) – 8 (hrs to sleep) = 16hrs
Write down everything else you HAVE TO DO and subtract it also. Eventually you’ll have a number of hours (or minutes) you can spend each day on what you love. Maybe it’s only 3o mins a day at the moment. That’s a start, at least. Now, can you sleep for 7 hours instead of 8? Can you work less hours a week? Can you streamline the time wasted on the way to/from work? Or, if unavoidable, can you make that time more productive? how much time have you squeezed out of each day now?
Here’s the good news though: If you work out the number of 8hr days in 10,000 hours, you get 1,250. That’s1,250 X 8hr days. Sounds a lot doesn’t it, but divide again by 365 (number of days in the year) and you get 3.4-ish. Now that’s 7 days a week, but 3.4ish years until you have achieved a comfortable level of competence in your chosen field is quite achievable, don’t you think? Perhaps university courses taking 4 years to complete are more likely to produce brilliance that 3 year courses, for this very reason…Hmm…(And don’t forget to – honestly – factor in the number of hours you’ve dedicated to your craft in your life already!)
Let’s say you start today and can’t dedicate eight hours a day, then dedicate four. It may take you 6.8yrs to become competent in your chosen field, but there you go. Two hours a day will take 13.7yrs and so on….How old are you now? How old will you be when 13.7 years rocks around? And that’s if you are spending two hours a day, seven days a week! Don’t want to wait that long, then don’t. Work faster. Work harder. Work more efficiently. But work, work, work!
In any case, how many hours a day do you dedicate to your chosen profession now? Eight hours? Four hours a day? Sixteen hours? One hour a week? Do you even reach 30 mins a week? Do you even know? It’s not enough. You will never catch up to those who dedicate most waking moments to it. Roger Federer does not roll out of bed at midday and just have a ‘casual swing of the tennis racquet’ whenever he gets the urge.
SO….
You’ve read this blog. Reward yourself by knowing that you have just contributed 3 minutes (being generous) to your 8 hours today! Only 7hrs and 57mins to go. What are you going to do next? Usually it isn’t lack of time that’s the problem, it’s not knowing what to do with it when you’ve got it. Read my blog regularly and I’ll give you plenty to do. (Or at least knock a few minutes off your 8 hours a day here and there….)
PS – (Original PS) Incidentally, I heard this story at 17 and I’m now 36 years old. 19 years multiplied by 8hrs a day = 55, 480 hours since then. 55, 480 hours dedicated to acting, directing, writing and teaching. At least. Perhaps I might be four times as brilliant if I’d stuck to one job. Regardless, if I’m not a good actor or director or writer or teacher now, then imagine what I’d be like after 19 years of only 30 minutes a week.
PPS – (Added April 11th, 2012) It has been approximately two years and two weeks since I wrote this blog. In that time, 744 days have passed. 11,904 waking hours. 5952 hours within the ‘eight hours a day’ rule. Just sayin’…
PPPS – (Added July 13th, 2013) It has been approximately 4320 waking hours since I last updated this post. 2160 waking hours…
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I’m so glad you re-posted this! These numbers are actually super inspirational, and in addition to being an artist, I’ve also loved geeking out with numbers and math since I was little. 8 hours for sleep, 8 hours for acting (sometimes more, say a 13 hour day of filming), and the rest for workin and living life as a human being and all. I love this post, thank you 🙂
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