A few focused minutes
Like the trees, we steadily grow up and out. (Image by Johannes Plenio)
My sister, a mother of three, dazzled the crowd in the school talent show, accompanying her daughters’ singing on cup percussion.
No one had known she possessed this skill, and their minds were blown. “You’re so talented!” they exclaimed.
She shrugged. “I spent a few hours learning it.”
My sister’s real accomplishment was to believe she could accomplish what she set out to do, and then to follow through by putting in the necessary time. Anyone could; not everyone does.
Culturally, we are more comfortable with the idea that some people possess a latent magical ability than we are with the reality: You get out what you put in. However, once you embrace this truth, it actually starts to seem pretty magical.
For instance, I recently resumed my study of French. I learned a few words yesterday — useful ones like bien que (although), laquel (which), and…plombière (female plumber). I learned those words. I didn’t know them, and now I do. If I spend a few focused minutes here and there during the day, I can learn more and more words and phrases, practice them, use them in sentences, and communicate in French. It just takes time, not talent.
If there is a “talent” involved, it is the ability to see the end in the beginning — to understand that consistent effort, over time, can lead to incredible accomplishments.
It’s understandable that we pick and choose what we want to invest our time into. You probably can’t be on the Olympic ski team and also make your living as a professional concert pianist. But too often, we give up on dreams that are much more accessible than we think. We have to remember that our bodies and minds are primed for learning. We pick up habits easily, and each practice session quickly builds on the one before. You don’t have to be world class in order for something to be worth doing. You can learn to ski competently and play piano well in one lifetime — maybe even in just a couple of years.
Because of how easy it is to pick up habits and have them become automatic, the learning curve for a new skill seems harder than it is. A child was examining a shawl that I had hand knit. “I could never do this,” she said. She asked how long it took, and I said that it was about twenty hours. Her eyes widened. “I just don’t have the patience.” Maybe she’s right, but it’s important to note that our capacity grows as we increase our skills. We start with minutes, not hours, and build from there. I spent the whole twenty hours engaged in an activity I was already good at — it didn’t take much patience at all.
It can be surprisingly difficult to set aside a few focused minutes to work on a new skill. We want to invest hours, and since we don’t have those hours, we give up. But tiny amounts of time can yield powerful results over weeks, months, and years.
What would you do in a few focused minutes per day? What would you learn? What would success look like to you?