“It never gets easier, you just go faster.” Greg LeMond
I have just finished a great book by Malcom Gladwell called Outliers. One of the themes of the book is how people who have achieved success have more often than not had a number of fortunate events take place in their lives (including in many cases begin born at the right time!), and have spent a lot of time practicing their area of expertise.
It reminds me of the success of many sportsmen.
Time spent training and competing is an attribute that people often fail to identify when discussing the success of athletes. We hear how an athlete is ‘gifted’ or has ‘natural talent’, but when you dive a little deeper you find that the person actually has simply trained hard and regularly – and not a lot more. Also, doing the sport/event from a young age is crucial. Think Tiger Woods. I think a lot of his success comes from practicing regularly for year upon year – and since he was very young.
So the secret is really no secret at all. If you want to get good at something practice specifically that. If you want to improve your flexibility then stretch. If you want to run faster then spend some more time running. If you want to lose fat then spend less time eating food you know is no good for you. If you want to be better at shooting free throws then shoot a lot of free throws.
The recipe is simple. Work hard at what you want to improve in, and you almost certainly will.
Everything is trainable.
Tags: Malcolm Gladwell, Sport
