Lessons on Success and Deliberate Practice From Mozart, Picasso, and Kobe Bryant

Several researchers have found that achieving true expertise requires at least 10,000 hours of deliberate practice over at least ten years. The most crucial ingredient, after motivation itself, is sustained absorbed attention—whether that consists of practicing to improve or actually performing. Small

“Deliberate practice”: K. Anders Ericsson, Ralf Th. Krampe, and Clemens Tesch-Romer, “The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance,” Psychological Review 100, no. 3 (1993): 363–406, ht​tps:/​/grap​hics8​.nyti​mes.c​om/im​ages/​blogs​/frea​konom​ics/p​df/De​liber​atePr​act​ice(PsychologicalReview).pdf/.

My experience had validated the old saw that practice makes perfect. But only if it’s the right kind of concentrated, self-conscious, deliberate practice. I’d learned firsthand that with focus, motivation, and, above all, time, the mind can be trained to do extraordinary things. This was a tremendously empowering discovery. It made me ask myself: W

K. Anders Ericsson. He was a psychology professor at Florida State University and the author of an article titled “Exceptional Memorizers: Made, Not Born.”