Patience is a virtue for a reason, but unfortunately, patience is also rare to come across. There are many people who are frustrated with where they are and wondering why they are not at where they want to be. They want the vision to be accomplished now, not later.
There were times when I was this person, and I believe it is fair to say that we have all had this kind of experience at some point in our lives. It is the feeling of impatience and a desire to move up. It is the feeling where we realize that putting in an immense amount of work does not result in an overnight change. Instead, these changes are gradual, and I would argue that it takes 10,000 hours to go from unsuccessful to successful in any area.
Where and when I first heard of this rule, I don’t quite remember. There are many people who reference the 10,000 hour rule. If I had to take a guess, I would say that Buffer was probably the blog where I first learned about the 10,000 hour rule.
When I first heard of the rule, I was skeptical. How can we possibly know that it takes 10,000 hours to become successful in any field? Why can’t it just take 5,000 hours instead? Why is it an exact number?
This is where patience becomes important. The people who think, “Why not 5,000 hours?” may eventually come to think, “Why not 1,000 hours?” Many people have a desperate desire to get the journey over with that forget to enjoy every second of the journey.
In this journey, it is entirely possible for you to invest 10,000 hours of time into one area, and it is in this area where you will become the established expert of your niche. If you ask numerous professional athletes whether they practiced for 10,000 hours or not, I am sure that most of those athletes would say they have practiced for over 10,000 hours within their lifetimes.
Many of the successful bloggers have been at it for several years. Some of these people have been blogging for multiple years while others have been blogging for more than a decade. Within that time period, it is easy to assume that these people worked in those areas for 10,000 hours within their lifetimes.
Benefits To Putting In The 10,000 Hours
There are many benefits to putting in 10,000 hours of your time into one area. Although some of these benefits are obvious, others are not as obvious.
Including these benefits in an article about the legitimacy of the 10,000 hour rule serves as motivation for everyone who aspires to become a leader of their niche, do something really well, and be known for something remarkable by putting in the time.
The most obvious benefit is that you achieve your goal. If your goal was to be a blogger with a full-time income, putting in the 10,000 hours will most likely result in you becoming the blogger with the full-time income.
Another benefit that exists that some people know about is the ability to raise the bar higher. You can aspire to make double the income you are making within a certain amount of time. Then, you can dream bigger for your next 10,000 hours.
One of the benefits depends on what you pursue, but it is a benefit that few people know about. Each time you implement the 10,000 hour rule and become successful in an area, it is easier to become successful in another area in a shorter amount of time.
Neil Patel is a successful blogger who has multiple blogs that get hundreds of thousands of monthly visitors. It took his blog Quick Sprout 4 years and 9 months to get 100,000 monthly visitors. For his next blog, KISSMetrics, it took 1 year and 10 months to achieve the same goal. After KISSMetrics was Crazy Egg which reached the same milestone in 1 year and 6 months. The reason why Neil was able to get each blog passed the milestone faster than the previous one was because be knew more about blog traffic each time he started a new blog.
It is easy to imagine that Neil learned a lot about SEO, blogging, social media when he created Quick Sprout. Quick Sprout took the longest to grow because Neil had to start from square one. By the time he created KISSMetrics, Neil already know a lot about blogging.
After KISSMetrics’ success, he learned more information about blogging. This resulted in Crazy Egg quickly reaching 100,000 visitors per month. It got easier for Neil each time just as it will get easier for you to achieve the same goal once you accomplish it the first time.
In Conclusion
The 10,000 hour rule is one of the most powerful rules ever invented. This rule emphasizes the need to be patient and put in the time and effort to accomplish your biggest goals. Goals do not get accomplished just by thinking about them.
In the end, it is how you utilize these 10,000 hours that will determine how quickly you become successful as well as how you become successful. Showing up is not good enough. You need to be effective when you show up to get better results. The more you work on your goals, the quicker they will be accomplished.
According to the 10,000 hour rule, working for one hour every day on becoming a key player in your industry will result in this status becoming a reality in 27 years. Putting in four hours every day will result in the same goal getting accomplished in seven years.
Putting in 8 hours of work every day (which is possible if you are not in the 9-to-5 status quo) will result in you getting this goal accomplished in a little under three and a half years. These numbers indicate that the more work you put in (as long as it is productive work), the earlier you will be a key player in your industry.
What is your opinion on the 10,000 hour rule?
It’s all about quality not quantity. There is a learning curve and you’ll be good enough in 2000 hours. Which means you can be good enough in five disciplines in the same time.
Interesting take on the topic. I agree that quality is more important than quantity, but in the beginning it’s about quantity. In the beginning, I would rather put in one decent hour per day than one superb hour per week. Everyone starts out less than decent. Doing a little bit each day eventually leads to the quality. That quality then leads to exponential mastery.