Many things in life take time.
When I watched the recent Tokyo Olympics, I can only imagine the amount of time taken for each athlete to be where they are today. No doubt, the time taken has to be coupled with a whole lot of other things such as dedication, patience, endurance, discipline and motivation.
Everyday they practiced, to be good at what they do. Then, I was reminded of the book “The Outliers: The Story of Success” where the author Malcolm Gladwell repeatedly mentioned the 10,000 hour rule of practice to be good at something.
It takes time to boil a delicious pot of soup. From the moment we think about it, visualize its taste, imagining the steps, the time starts. When we start to choose our ingredients, taking the time to select the freshest or whatever that is available in our fridge, the time moves. When we cut, slice, chop our ingredients and start cooking them, stage by stage, layer by layer to build amazing flavours, we leave it for some time to boil.
It takes time to bake a good loaf of bread. The time taken to knead the dough, and leaving the dough to proof; and then coming back to it, to continue kneading and proofing for a few rounds to achieve the softest and fluffiest result.
There may be shortcuts available. Some shortcuts may work, while some works but does not produce the same result. Take for example, baking bread, such as a no knead version, the result may not be the same, it may not be as fluffy and soft.
If we listen to the stories of restaurant owners with age-old recipes, passed down from their grandparents to their parents and then to them, how they spent hours and hours building the flavours, perfecting the recipes. Although technology is available, the older generation continued to do it by hand because their food tastes better. The younger ones would bring in and add technology with machineries to increase production but they would first need to make sure the quality is not affected. It takes time to perfect it for sure.
It takes time to learn and to be good at something. This added with passion, practice, dedication and patience. It takes interest to first to want to do something about it, for example learning to play a guitar. It takes time to research about the type of guitar to get, the songs to learn and to make the money to be able to get a guitar. Then, it takes time to learn, to try, to practice, to season the fingers and to harden the tip of the fingers, for them to withstand longer hours of playing the guitar.
It takes time to write a good article. If it is a technical article, it takes time to research, to gather relevant information from reliable sources. It takes time to think about the points to write, to organize the thoughts, to find the right words and to write them down. It then takes more time to review what has been written, to edit, to amend and to polish the article a little bit more before publishing.
It takes time to build our portfolio. If it is our portfolio as a professional, it takes time to collect the experiences needed and to add on to our resume. For example, a fashion designer or a pilot, it takes time to collect the hours needed, to expand the portfolio, to gain trust from clients and employers.
With practice, the time taken can be fine tuned and possibly shortened to achieve the goal. In some cases, the extra time gained is then used to practice more, to get better at it and to improve ourselves to write better, to cook better, to play better.
It takes time and a whole lot of other things to be good at something.
10,000 hours... I wonder how many hours I spent in writing, washing dishes, laundry, sewing, working, studying... Perhaps it's time to practise resting and relaxing, doing nothing?