To Be An Expert And Not To Be An Expert

It was over 2000 years ago that Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do”. He has certainly repeatedly been proven correct. More recently, Anders Ericsson, a leading researcher on high performance, and others, posit that 10,000 hours of “deliberate practice” is the minimum necessary to achieve expertise. It does mean that excellence requires a lot of work, and it also means that we can build any skill or capacity that we desire, if we’ll willing commit the time and make the effort.

But do you have to be an expert at everything? One of my clients gave up a sport that he was good at because he was not great! We talked about it, and he discovered that he really enjoyed it, so he had given something up that gave him a great deal of pleasure. Since it wasn’t a priority for him, he never would be an expert player, but couldn’t he still enjoy himself? “We are what we repeatedly do”, but is our value as people, our self-worth, based only on the outcome of what we do? The greater our self-esteem, the more we can enjoy the journey and feel the deep satisfaction of a good effort, as well as the satisfaction of being an expert.

A balanced life is about having time for work, relationships, and leisure. It’s also about having enough self-esteem to enjoy doing things at which you excel, in fact, making the investment in yourself to become an expert, and things that you just enjoy doing no matter your performance.

Here’s what you can do to become an expert:
•Pursue what you love.
•Do the hardest work first.
•Practice intensely.
•Seek expert feedback.
•Take regular renewal breaks.
•Ritualize practice

Here’s what you can do to not be an expert:
•Enjoy the journey.
•Do things that you enjoy no matter your skill level.
•Have fun.
•Do whatever you need to do you to perceive yourself as a person who deserves to be
happy.