Do you consider yourself successful? What would you cite as
necessities for someone to achieve great success?
Whenever there’s a discussion of what constitutes success,
opinions are plentiful. Innate abilities, sometimes also referred to as
“giftedness” or aptitude, can certainly make a huge difference. Education and
training usually are significant contributors. And you can’t discount the level
of one’s determination and perseverance – willingness to continue pressing forward
in the face of obstacles and adversity.
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| As someone has said, before trying to climb the ladder of success, make certain it's facing the right wall. |
Years ago in Outliers:
The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell examined success from many perspectives.
He introduced the “10,000-Hour Rule” as a key factor for attaining high levels
of success. Drawing from Swedish psychologist Anders Ericsson’s research, Gladwell
proposed spending at least 10,000 hours practicing a specific skill as a prerequisite
for mastering it.
Predictably, Gladwell’s declaration met criticism from
experts arguing time and repetition alone can’t guarantee success. The saying,
“practice makes perfect,” falls flat if you practice making the same mistakes
again and again, they noted. Maybe that’s why the adage was later amended to
“Perfect practice makes perfect.”
In reality, both sides are right – and wrong. Large
quantities of time will produce success only if practice and repetition are
done with quality. And practice, even if done with precision, will foster
success only if done in sufficient quantities to make excellence almost second
nature.
Thinking about Gladwell’s 10,000-hour rule, only a handful
of things I’ve done over the years would qualify. When I took Personal Typing as
a junior in high school, learning the “home row” seemed impossible, and I couldn’t
imagine typing without looking directly at the keys. After many years of work
as a journalist, learning to think and compose at the keyboard, I became very
proficient as a typist. In fact, my typing surpassed many of the secretaries
and administrative assistants wherever I worked.
I couldn’t begin to calculate how much time I’ve spent
writing, over more than 40 decades as a newspaper reporter and editor, magazine
editor, book author, columnist and blogger. But the hours must total tens of
thousands. On happy occasions when someone is kind enough to compliment my
writing skills, I’m thankful. But it also occurs to me, “Well, I’d better be a
pretty good writer. I’ve spent enough time doing it!”
Contrast that with pursuits I’ve enjoyed but never invested
enough time to perfect. It was fun playing the drums in high school, but after
a couple of years of formal lessons, my percussion practice consisted only of
random “bang sessions.” As a result, I never became the drummer I would have
liked to be.
In college I spent many hours on tennis courts playing
recreationally. Over time I became reasonably skilled given my athletic
limitations, but because I never invested the time demanded to become a good
player, I never advanced beyond mediocre. Ten thousand hours practicing tennis?
Not even close.
So what’s all this got to do with anything? Well, for one
thing, the mantra, “It’s the quality that counts, not quantity,” is a copout.
For instance, in parenting, children want quality time – but they like it in
quantity. If you want to have a good, growing marriage, you need to give your
spouse quantity time – not an occasional quality hour or two. Successful parents – and successful partners – aren’t afraid to invest whatever time is necessary.
Maybe even 10,000 hours or so.
Spiritually it’s much the same. The average Christian seems
to think attendance at a worship service and maybe a Sunday school class or
small group is sufficient for spiritual maturity. “Hey, God, I gave you a
couple of hours on Sunday. What do you want?”
Granted, we have work, family obligations, time for eating
and sleeping, maybe a few community activities thrown in. And we need time for
TV and just chillin’, right? But how can we experience success spiritually if
we spend more time eating chips than we do speaking and listening to God?
In reality, He wants us 24/7. That doesn’t mean we walk
about with hands folded and heads bowed. But the Bible does say, “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians
5:17), which means doing that in the classroom, during a business meeting,
while disciplining our children, cooking meals, even driving the car. Praying
does not require closed eyes or opened mouths.
The verse preceding that tells us to “Rejoice always” (1 Thessalonians 5:16). This applies to good times
and bad, victories and defeats, happy times and sad. Because being successful
spiritually involves trusting the Lord is with us no matter what.
Do you really want to know God? It’s going to require a lot
more than reading “the verse of the day” that arrives by email every morning.
King David understood this from personal experience when he wrote, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By
living according to your word…. I have hidden your word in my heart that I
might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:9,11).
