MESSAGE #1239 - HOW TO BE THE NEXT HANK AARON

In playing ball,
or in life,
a person
occasionally
gets the opportunity
to do
something great.
When that time comes,
only
two things matter:
being prepared
to seize
the moment
and
having the courage
to take
your best swing.

Hank Aaron
Major League Baseball’s
second greatest
home run hitter

MESSAGE #1213 - HOW TO BE THE NEXT MADELINE BRIDGES

Give
the world
the best
you have
and
the best
will come back
to you.

Madeline Bridges (1844-1920)
American poet

MESSAGE #1210 - HOW TO BE THE NEXT GENERAL PATTON

Always
do more
than
is required
of you.

George S. Patton (1885-1945)
U.S. Army general

MESSAGE #936 - HOW TO BE THE NEXT WILLIAM ARTHUR WARD

The price
of
excellence
is
discipline.
The cost
of
mediocrity
is
disappointment.

William Arthur Ward (1921-1994)
inspirational writer

MESSAGE #576 - HOW TO BE GREAT

How to be Great: Rising Above the Talent Myth

Published

by Don Campbell

on October 16, 2008

in Mastery

Think of the greatest athlete, musician, artist or business professional that inspires you. The amazing talents that really stand out. Michael Jordan. Tiger Woods. Warren Buffett. They were each born with a special gift: wired from birth with talents and abilities that most of us don’t have access to, right?

Research is showing that it’s not that simple. In fact, many child prodigies don’t go on to major success in the area of their early gifts. And many of the greatest performers, athletes and business people never showed any early signs of aptitude.

So, how did they become great at what they do?

A couple of years ago I read an article by Geoffrey Colvin in Fortune, What It Takes To Be Great. The article is fascinating and delves into the question of innate abilities, usually referred as “the talent myth”.

The Research on Great Performance

In 1993, Florida State University professor K. Anders Ericsson and his colleagues published a paper on ‘expert performance’ which, along with the additional studies around the world that it inspired, made some very interesting discoveries:

• Nobody is “great” without lots of work. Early aptitude is not a predictor for greatness in a given field without consistent practice over a long period of time.
• The most accomplished people in any field need about 10 years of hard work before they become “world class”. They call this the 10 Year Rule.

Many of these scientists are now saying that “targeted” natural gifts do not exist at all. You are not born a CEO or chess grandmaster. Rather, greatness is achieved by hard, focused work over many years.

Charlie Parker, widely considered one of the most influential of Jazz musicians, showed no sign of musical talent as a child. He started playing saxophone at age 11, and was thrown out of his high school band because he was so bad. But this drove him to practice intensively for many years, for four years up to 15 hours a day. It was many years after that before he was noticed.

Tiger Woods started practicing golf at 18 months, and was encouraged to practice by his father. He had been practicing intensively for 15 years before winning the U.S. Amateur Championship at age 18.

But you and I both know people who work very hard. Many work for decades at a job or hobby without approaching greatness. Why don’t they become “world class”, then?

It turns out that it’s not just hard work that is required. What is required is focused, consistent practice over a long period of time. Something the researchers are calling deliberate practice.

Deliberate Practice

Truly great people in any field devote many hours to deliberate practice. Deliberate practice is an activity that goes beyond repetition. It is consistent practice where the goal is to continually improve performance, reaching beyond your current capabilities, and seeking feedback on results.

The article describes what is my favorite example of deliberate practice:

Simply hitting a bucket of balls is not deliberate practice, which is why most golfers don’t get better. Hitting an eight-iron 300 times with a goal of leaving the ball within 20 feet of the pin 80 percent of the time, continually observing results and making appropriate adjustments, and doing that for hours every day — that’s deliberate practice.

And what’s great about these findings is that we can apply them to all areas of our life. Almost any skill is improvable. Giving presentations. Sports. Negotiating. Whatever it is that you do and have a passion for, you can improve and become truly great — if you are willing to put in the work, that is.

The Deliberate Practice Formula

1. Approach each critical task with an explicit goal of getting much better at it. Set goals that are just beyond your level of competency.
2. As you do the task, focus on what’s happening and why you’re doing it the way you are.
3. After the task, get feedback on your performance from multiple sources. Don’t get emotional about it, and make changes in your behavior as necessary.
4. Continually build mental models of your situation - of your industry, your company, your career. Expand the models to encompass more factors. (A good book on the concept of mental models is The Power of Impossible Thinking by Yoram Wind and Colin Cook).
5. Do those steps regularly, not sporadically. Occasional practice does not work. Consistency is the key here.

What Does This All Mean?

We don’t have to be born with a special talent in order to be great at something. We just have to have the desire to constantly work at and improve our skill. This is huge: it means that you can learn to be good, or even great at nearly anything!

Most people won’t go through the long and difficult process of deliberate practice. But this is what can separate you from the pack. This is what makes great performance rare: most people either don’t believe they can do it, or aren’t willing to do the work to become truly great at their passion.

So ask yourself, what is your ‘mastery skill’? What should you work on to improve regularly, practicing, getting feedback, improving and pushing yourself to higher levels of excellence?

Is it your career? Is it a sport? Is it art or music? Now that you know that excellence is a choice, a whole world of possibilities opens up. Are you ready to pursue your dream and become “world class at it”?

This is an article by guest writer Don Campbell of Expand2Web.

MESSAGE #521 - M.T.E.

Excellence

is

not

expected effort.

Excellence

is

special effort.

M.T.E. = More Than Expected

If you do what other people will not do,

you’ll get what other people will never ever get.

SPECIAL DEDICATION: Texas A&M International Women’s Soccer Team!

MESSAGE # 496 - “SPECIAL”

S = M.T.E.
Special = More Than Expected
Rob Gilbert
(973) 743-4690

Excellence
Is not
expected effort,
it is
special effort.
Ed Tseng
peak performance expert

Don’t alibi on bad hops.
Anyone can field the good ones.
Joe McCarthy (1887-1978)
New York Yankee manager

If there is nothing
very special about your work,
no matter how hard you apply yourself,
you won’t get noticed,
and that increasingly means
you won’t get promoted
and paid much, either.
Michael Goldhaber
author

MESSAGE #357 - MY FAVORITE POSTER

I loved Steve Prefontaine for the same reasons I love Muhammad Ali.

Both of these athletes were totally into it.
They were outrageous.
They were inspired.

Once Ali said to a group of young athletes:

“Shock the world.”

Pre tried to shock the world every time he ran.

Here’s my favorite Pre quote on my all-time favorite poster . . .

"TO GIVE
ANYTHING
LESS
THAN
YOUR BEST
IS
TO SACRIFICE
THE GIFT.”

-- Steve Prefontaine (1951-1975), inspired runner

MESSAGE #355 - ELVIS’S FAVORITE AD

This ad for Cadillac first appeared in The Saturday Evening Post on January 2, 1915.

Elvis first saw this ad in 1967 and he loved it so much that he placed a framed copy on the wall in his office at Graceland. Elvis felt that this very easily could have been written about him.

THE PENALTY OF LEADERSHIP

In every field of human endeavor,
he that is first must perpetually live
in the white light of publicity.

Whether the leadership be vested in a
man or in a manufactured product,
emulation and envy are ever at work.

In art, in literature, in music, in
industry, the reward and the punish-
ment are always the same.

The reward is widespread recognition;
the punishment, fierce denial and
detraction.

When a man’s work becomes a stand-
ard for the whole world, it also be-
comes a target for the shafts of the
envious few.

If his work be merely mediocre, he
will be left severely alone -- if he
achieves a masterpiece, it will set a
million tongues a-wagging.

Jealousy does not protrude its forked
tongue at the artist who produces a
commonplace painting.

Whatsoever you write, or paint, or play,
or sing, or build, no one will strive to
surpass or to slander you, unless your
work be stamped with the seal of genius.

Long, long after a great work or a good
work has been done, those who are dis-
appointed or envious continue to cry
out that it cannot be done.

Spiteful little voices in the domain of
art were raised against our own Whistler
as a mountebank, long after the big
world had acclaimed him its greatest genius.

Multitudes flocked to Bayreuth to
worship at the musical shrine of

Wagner, while the little group of those
whom he had dethroned and displaced
argued angrily that he was no musician
at all.

The little world continued to protest
that Fulton could not build a steam-
boat, while the big world flocked to
the river to see his boat steam by.

The leader is assailed because he is a
leader, and the effort to equal him is
merely added proof of that leadership.

Failing to equal or to excel, the follower
seeks to depreciate and to destroy -- but
only confirms once more the superiority
of that which he strives to supplant.

There is nothing new in this.

It is as old as the world and as old as
the human passions -- envy, fear, greed,
ambition, and the desire to surpass.

And it all avails nothing.

If the leader truly leads, he remains --
the leader.

Master-poet, master-painter, master-
workman, each in his turn is assailed,
and each holds his laurels through the ages.

That which is good or great makes
itself known, no matter how loud
the clamor of denial.

That which deserves to live -- lives.

Message #349 - HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY!

Dedicated to: James Hester, the “Michael Flately of Montclair State”
Happy Birthday Greetings to: the GREAT Dr. Paul Hartunian

MESSAGE #215 - EXCELLENCE INSPIRES #2

There’s something about excellence . . .
when you see it – it inspires.

I know I wrote that yesterday . . .
but it’s true.

When we see someone else doing something
extra-ordinary . . .
it reminds us of our own possibilities.

This reminds me of my favorite quote:

The purpose of life is to
discover your gifts.
The meaning of life comes from
giving your gifts away.

Dr. David Viscott said that.

A big THANK YOU to
DAN PERKINS
for sending me this video.

MESSAGE #214 - EXCELLENCE INSPIRES!

There’s something to excellence . . .

when you see it – it inspires.

I never thought I’d get inspired

from watching rollerblading . . .

I never thought that I’d get goose bumps

from watching rollerblading . . .

I was wrong.