Talent is a myth in our society, but it's sold to us as reality.
Attaining high performance is a matter of practice and like Aristotle said, Habit.
We are what we repeatedly do.
Mozart is commonly championed as a child prodigy, mesmerising audiences at age 6. But looking closely at the 'Geniuses' before they were known as such shows us not as much a prodigy but rather something simpler: people who practiced rigorously.
Mozart's ability does not appear to be linked to genius or some kind of divine inspiration or fate; Rather the truth is much simpler, he was pushed to practice from an extremely early age. By the time Mozart played for a public audience at age 6 he had accumulated an impressive 3,500 hours of practice. Comparing that to other musicians makes one less impressed with his talent and more impressed with his habits and will to continue them.
<aside> 🧠Practice > Talent
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A study of young violinists that compared their skill level to the amount of time they spent practicing shows us a very telling story: The stars of the study performed for an average of 10,000 hours whilst the least skilled students had 4,000 or less under their belts.
As soon as we become good at something we stop trying. This is a simple rule most of us abide by; We only work on our performance up to a certain point after which we cease to try.
After we reach this point any practice will be towards practicing what we already know we're good at. This usually means that we can practice for hours per day but get near to no results and/or improvements.
Top performers however differ; They are not content with the repetition of tasks they mastered. Instead they strive to constantly improve beyond their current skill level. Think of Arnold Schwarzenegger and how he built muscle: by challenging himself on a daily basis. Physically as well as mentally.
During this path you will encounter failure, which will in turn make your mind more resilient if you embrace failure and use it as a teacher.
To become a champion of any skill you must learn from your failure.
<aside> 🧠Intensive and long practice changes the composition of your brain. Tasks that were once hard and required your attention [pre-frontal cortext] now don't require your attention. They are automatic to you as you've built enough neural pathways for them specifically.
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