Getting Your 1,000 Hour Program Going

Last week we talked about how long it takes to be successful – to achieve a level of competence in any life skill. Turns out it takes pretty much the same amount of time regardless of your goal.1,000 hours for competence5,000 hours for mastery

35,000 hours for virtuosity (and only if you are gifted)

Deduct 30% if you have really good coaching.

Today why don’t we make this secret work for you? Here’s how:

1. Take a largish sheet of paper or poster board. Create a grid of 1,000 boxes. (You can probably do this quite easily on your computer.)

2. On the top of your chart, write (in bold letters) the task/objective that is most important to your success.

3. Sometime today spend an hour doing something specific and useful to achieve that goal – and cross off your first box.

4. Put your chart someplace where it will be easy for you to see it every day.

5. Congratulate yourself. You are finally on your way!

A promise: Before you’ve scratched out that last box, you will have what you want.

A word of caution: Some times what seems like one goal is actually two. To “become a professional writer,” for example, you need to (1) become a competent writer and (2) get someone to pay you.

What do you want to do? What do you want to become good at? Make your chart and put in your first hour. You’ll be shocked at how fast the next 999 go by.

[Ed. Note.  Mark Morgan Ford was the creator of Early To Rise. In 2011, Mark retired from ETR and now writes the Palm Beach Letter. His advice, in our opinion, continues to get better and better with every essay, particularly in the controversial ones we have shared today. We encourage you to read everything you can that has been written by Mark.]