You have to do something 10,000 times before you become excellent at it.
That fact was shared with me at a recent workshop I attended on continuous improvement.
A couple of weeks later, the chief executive of my company sent a Fortune magazine article to all his leaders as required reading. The article was called,”What it takes to be great” and it asserted that greatness is not innate. It’s the result of deliberate practice, consistency, and a mindset to constantly improve.
“You will achieve greatness only through an enormous amount of hard work over many years,” reported Fortune’s senior editor at-large Geoffrey Colvin. He wrote that “even the most accomplished people need around 10 years of hard work before becoming world class, a pattern so well established researchers call it the 10-year rule.”
And 10 years is a minimum, not an average!
The good news, Colvin wrote, is that we all start life with the same potential. “We can make ourselves what we will.”
While Colvin was alluding to great business performance, his findings can be applied to just about everything -- including the way we approach life. Sometimes it takes practice to view life as a cup half full rather than half empty.
What do you practice in your daily life -- negativity or positivity?
How much time to you devote to it?
I’ve been told it takes at least 21 days to break a bad habit or form a new one. If you need to break a cycle of negative thinking, it will take:
Awareness -- admit you have a problem.
Determination -- make a conscious effort to turn your attitude around.
Discipline -- practice makes perfect.
Patience and perseverance -- don’t give up. Keep at it!
Along this journey, be kind to yourself. Bad habits are like a comfortable bed, easy to get into, but hard to climb out of.
Think positive. Start practicing today!
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