Jack of all trades; master of none??

In life, your chosen profession,  where do you rank among the experts?   This is a probing question.  In my field of study, I am an iridologist, naturopath, teacher, mentor.   How do I become an expert?  How do I achieve world-class mastery?

Neurologist Daniel Levintin notes:  The emerging picture from such studies is that ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert–in anything.   In study after study, of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master criminals, and what have you, this number comes up again and again…  No one has yet found a case in which true world-class expertise was accomplished in less time.  It seems that it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery.  (The Circle Maker, pg 86)

I whipped out my trusty calculator and crunched the numbers.   If you use a forty-hour week as the basic unit, then it would take 4.8 years of uninterrupted study and practice to achieve ten thousand hours.  It is only after ten thousand hours that one can consider himself an expert.   How do we get there?   One way is continuing education.   Another way is daily discipline.   Still another way is interning with someone who has logged in those ten thousand hours…   Any combination of the above will propel us into mastery.

 

Until next time,

 

Dr. Polly