A study was done in the early 90's by psychologist K. Anders Eriksson to determine what a person had to do to become an expert in his or her particular field. For years, many had believed that innate talent was the primary source, but Eriksson believed there was another key component. His findings proved this to be true.
He and two colleagues from Berlin's elite Academy of Music divided the school's violinists into 3 groups. The 1st group were the stars. In the 2nd were those deemed to be merely "good". The 3rd group were those who would never play professionally.
All the violinists were asked the same question: Over the course of your entire career, since the day you picked up the violin, how many hours have you practiced? Over the first couple of years all the violinists practiced the same amount. However, around age eight differences emerged. The group that became the star performers began practicing much more than the others. In fact, the experts had practiced 10,000 hours by the age of 20!
Eriksson went on to study other stars throughout history such as Mozart, The Beatles, Bill Gates, and many more. Once again, he found that 10,000 hours was the magic number!
Why do I write this? It's certainly not to discourage you! Instead, it's to encourage you not to give up on excelling in your God-given gifts. Keep working hard to become a better singer, songwriter, musician, actor, businessman, leader, banker, parent, spouse, etc. In many cases, you may be getting yourself ready for something great that God has for you in the future!
Study info from
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Every once in a while, I run across something that just about blows my socks off. The following video is definitely in that category. Hang on to your seat!
Last night we were sitting at the dinner table and Trevor brought up his Kindergarten teacher and her pregnancy. It sounded as if the class had been proposing different theories that day as to how the doctors could tell the gender of the baby. There was one in particular that really stuck with Trevor and he was convinced of its truth: boys eat meat and girls eat vegetables.
In case you haven't noticed, radio is moving to the internet. The other day, my brother recommended a station to me called Pandora Radio. Pandora was created as a result of The Music Genome Project. Basically, a group of music technologists set out to capture the unique identity (genes) of songs from tens of thousands of artists. Their analysis led them to hundreds of musical attributes. They used this information to categorize the songs according to their similar "genes".
The other you. You know, it's that part of you that seemingly rises up out of nowhere now and then. For some, the other you has shown up on the highway when you were stuck behind a person driving below the speed limit. Suddenly, your once peaceful heart erupted in anger and demeaning words flew out. For others, the other you has appeared while you were at the office. An attractive person caught your eye. Instead of one quick look, you found yourself staring and wondering what it might be like to be with them.
I ran across this great Martin Luther King quote today. As you can see, it clearly reinforces God's Word to us about our work.
One day a boy named Isaac Watts was walking home with his dad from church. Isaac began to complain about the music. At the time (late 1600's), music in the church was sung without instruments (they were considered worldly) and only the psalms could be put to music. Being the wise man that he was, Isaac's dad responded in a way all of us can learn from. He said, "Son, why don't you mend the matter?" In other words--write some music of your own.
A study was done in the early 90's by psychologist K. Anders Eriksson to determine what a person had to do to become an expert in his or her particular field. For years, many had believed that innate talent was the primary source, but Eriksson believed there was another key component. His findings proved this to be true.
