In Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, he illustrated it takes roughly 10,000 hours of practice to achieve mastery in any endeavor. Furthermore, he showed that natural talent is not as important as practice, revealing a direct statistical relationship between hours of practice and achievement. There are no shortcuts to achieving difficult long term goals.
In my own running experience, I achieved most of my personal bests at age 36 after 13 years of focused training. In my 14 year coaching career I have helped several 40+ aged athletes achieve lifetime bests as they get older. I helped a Masters lady drop 10 minutes off her marathon time and qualify for the Olympic Trials. She trained hours and hours every day for several years to achieve that goal. A gentleman who began with me over 10 years ago at age 52 has set lifetime bests in the 800m to the marathon in his 60’s and is now very competitive in his age group at a national level. All of these athletes are examples of how the power of focused practice and believing in your goals, for a long consecutive period of years, is crucial to achieving one’s ultimate level of success.
10,000 hours of practice equates to about 3 hours a day every day for 10 years, which sounds rigorous. It is a perceived barrier that prevents most of us from ever reaching our true potential; we give up our goals and dreams after only a few years of training. If you want to become your best in anything continue to believe in yourself, and know that practice is paramount to success.
DREAM * BELIEVE * TRAIN * CELEBRATE
Nicole Hunt
Speed Endurance Coaching
Please contact me anytime with questions
