Have you ever watched someone do something that is supposed to be difficult but they make it look so effortless? To me, it is honestly one of the most satisfying things to watch. Whether it be watching a professional golfer hit a 230-yard draw into a tucked pin on a long par 3, a seasoned structural engineer draw out the free body diagram and load paths on a complicated structure, a veteran public speaker delivering a speech to a group of thousands of people, or a weightlifter lifting an absurd amount of weight… watching something so seemingly difficult being performed with ease is so mesmerizing to watch. Although these performances are mesmerizing and inspiring to some, watching these performances can be extremely defeating to others, and I think it is all about how you look at them. The people that find these things inspiring are driven by the thought that “if these people can do it, so can I”. The people that find these things defeating are driven by the idea that these people are so far ahead of them, that nothing they can do will get them there and that they shouldn’t even try. The downfall of the second way of thinking is that these people fail to realize that the master of anything was once a beginner. Yes, there are people who are genetically gifted in some areas more than others, but the people that are true masters of their craft put in a lot of time and effort behind the scenes to get to where they are and to be able to do what they do. People that are the true masters of their craft cultivate years of consistency toward their work in order to build a certain level of self-confidence that is an absolute necessity to perform at the level they perform, in front of the number of people they perform in front of. Every speaker who gets on the stage in front of thousands, every golfer who tees it up on Championship Sunday in front of galleries of people, every engineer who signs off on designs where it’s failure could lead to the death of hundreds of people, they all have one thing in common: they are extremely confident in what they do. Some people think that confident people are born with it, that they just come out of the womb with self-confidence and never doubt themselves a day in their lives, and this may be true for some people… but the overwhelming majority of successful people have built their confidence through training and consistent repetitions. To me, the best part about confidence is that you can build confidence in anything you want with enough repetitions.
As mentioned before, the master at anything was once a beginner. The best golfers in the world once swung a club for the first time, the best public speakers in the world once gave a group presentation for the first time, and the best engineers once looked at a math problem for the first time. The difference in skill between when they were a beginner vs where they are now as an expert is the cumulation of hundreds of thousands of swung golf clubs, presentations & math problems. Think about this idea from personal experience – think of how hard it was the first time doing anything that you do now on a daily basis, and now you do it without hesitation. You are extremely confident in performing that action, but why? The idea behind this is the thought that “I have done this correctly a thousand times, what’s one more?”. The only difference between you and these so-called masters is that the thing that you have done a thousand times is cooking your favorite dish, whereas theirs is hitting a 230-yard iron shot with a draw. Though the performances differ in magnitude (depending on how good your dish is, I guess), the idea is the same. Once you have done something so many times, it is not asking much for you to do it one more time.
A lot of people argue that just because you do something a thousand times, it is completely different whenever you have to do it in front of a large crowd or in a slightly different environment. Although this is true, the best performers are able to ignore outside distractions and focus on the task at hand – the task that they have completed thousands of times. One of my favorite quotes is “When under pressure, you don’t rise to the occasion – you fall to the level of your training”. Although this quote is typically credited to Navy Seals, it actually comes from the Greek poet, Archilochus. What this quote is saying is that when you are placed in an environment with a lot of extra outside distractions, you don’t have to do anything special, you just have to do what you have trained yourself to do – the task that you have done a thousand times. At the end of the day, one’s performance is a function heavily weighted in confidence, and confidence is something that can easily be built with enough consistent practice and repetitions. If you want to get better at something, or even maybe become a master, get your reps in. Be consistent.
Although certain things are more natural to some people than others and these things may be easier for said people to become masters at, I am a firm believer that you can become an expert at anything you want to, with enough repetitions. This is good because just because you aren’t very good at something doesn’t mean you can’t become good at it. One experiment that drives home this point is the ‘Grandmaster experiment’ conducted by a Hungarian psychologist, Laszlo Polgar. Although this study is extremely interesting and I recommend you look into it if you are interested, I am just going to give a brief overview. This experiment was carried out by Laszlo Polgar & his wife, who believed that genius could be nurtured through hard work & intensive training. This experiment was conducted on their own children (bold strategy and extremely questionable, but the point still stands). From a very young age, Laszlo & his wife dedicated their lives to teaching their daughters chess. This ‘teaching’ involved strict training regimens, homeschooling, daily lessons/practice, tournaments, etc. By the time the three daughters were older, all three were extremely successful professional chess players and the eldest even became the youngest-ever female grandmaster at the age of 15. The success of the sisters provided evidence to support the belief that genius could be cultivated, rather than solely determined by genetics. Although this study was questionable in execution, the results affirm the point I was trying to make: you can become an expert at anything you want to, with enough repetitions.
Next time you watch someone do something that is so seemingly difficult, but they do it with ease, pay attention to the confidence they show when they are doing it. It looks as if they aren’t even trying, and that is because they aren’t. They know what they are capable of and they know how to perform the task at hand because they have done it a thousand times. As mentioned in the first paragraph, you can witness these performances and immediately feel defeated, or you can be inspired & motivated. Choose the latter. Understand that the person performing the task was once a beginner, they were once in your shoes. If you want to perform at a high level and perform at that level consistently, focus first on building your confidence. Get your reps in.
