Mastery, and Time on Task

That word has a nice sound to it. 

 

"Possession of consummate skill" is how one online dictionary defines it.

 

Who wouldn't want to be a master of something?

 

In our microwave culture, though, we often yearn to achieve mastery on the cheap. "Master a language in 7 days," or "master social network marketing in 10 days," or "be a karate master in 10 days."

 

If you can master something in 10 days, there probably isn't much to it. Like tic-tac-toe. I mastered tic-tac-toe as a child. Haven't been beaten since 1964. 

 

So what?

 

Malcolm Gladwell has famously written that true mastery requires 10,000 hours of time on task, and has substantial evidence to back it up. For those keeping track, that's almost 3 hours a day for 10 years. I'm sure one could argue with that number; maybe for a particular task that number is higher or lower, but the point is made: mastery of any task of even moderate complexity is going to require time spent on the task, probably lots of it.

 

Which is why practice, not belief, is the focus of these writings. 

 

So, here's the invitation -- examine your life, how you spend your time. With an unwavering, critical eye, ask yourself, "what am I mastering?" by asking "how do I spend my time?" What tasks do you do that seem likely to produce mastery in your life? Are these the activities you want to master? Do you really want to master the analysis of sporting events or sitcoms? Do you really want to master sitting in traffic?

 

Or do you want to master the skill of loving your fellow humans? Or compassion? Or wisdom? Or forgiveness?

 

If these are your aims, then ask yourself, what can I do with sufficient time-on-task to develop mastery in these domains? What must I change in my life so that I'm mastering what I want to master?

 

And don't expect the answer to be easy. This is not tic-tac-toe we're talking about.