Are you fast becoming a master at channel surfing or at delivering customer service that exceeds expectations? Are you setting an environment for your kids, students, employees or yourself to master the art of questioning or the art of learning?

In his book, Outliers, The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell provides a great deal of evidence that the best (if not only) way to master something is to dedicate approximately 10,000 hours to it. For perspective, that is 1,250, 8 hour days. An “outlier” is a scientific term to describe things or phenomena that lie outside normal experience; in this instance, people who have achieved over and above what is expected. Gladwell’s examples include chess masters, the Beatles, golfers, Mozart, and others. He stresses through many examples that a combination of people, circumstances, and tenacity of practice is what leads to greatness, not just innate talents. According to Gladwell, outliers are the beneficiaries of many helping hands.

Excellence takes time. One of the encouraging points of Outliers is that you can reach excellence in most things if you can persist in the right dedicated practice of your art, whatever it might be. Be purposeful about how you spend your time. If your goals involve mastering a set of skills, make sure your daily routine allows you to dedicate consistent time toward developing the habits and skills you need to achieve your goals.

P.S. Anyone who is a mentor, teacher, parent, leader, coach, or a life learner will enjoy this book. If we can’t all be outliers, we can certainly contribute to the development an outlier.

Cheers,
Lois

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