Impatience: the bane of the thoughtful mind. The other day, I was stopped at a red light immersed in my own ponderings. Slowly this sound of great annoyance permeated my consciousness. Someone was wailing on his horn. “What is this idiocy all about,” I thought to myself. I slowly refocused my morning’s musings to discover the source of the pandemonium. There, at some distance, an Uber Eats driver was trying to open a space in the halted traffic so he could proceed to the beginning of the queue. We were “packed in like sardines,” so his efforts were futile. That did not diminish the frantic nature of his attempt, however.
Finally, after causing a great deal of disquietude, he thrust his motocha to the front. The traffic control changed and, en masse, we were off, screeching down the road. Twirling and twisting, we arrived at the next lumière. Who was beside me? You guessed it, the aforementioned driver. What is the lesson here? It was taught to us so many centuries ago by the Greek slave, Aesop, (1) in his tale, The Tortoise and the Hare. (2) Who eventually won the race? It was, of course, the tortoise. Why? It was because of his slow, plodding progress – not the frenetic activity of a one-hit-wonder. (3)
All thinking people must acknowledge that we are obligated to make our life a part of a reflective and contemplative forward-moving action. We, however, live in an age of instantaneous gratification due to the cell phone and the Internet. These entities can present data leading to knowledge, but nowhere is it presupposed that they will guide us to wisdom. This art can only be achieved through effort – the process of repetition, a métier practiced again and again – to attain a level of skill, of expertise. This is the aptly called 10,000-Hour Rule. (4)
“Malcolm Gladwell’s third non-fiction book, ‘Outliers: The Story of Success,’ was published in 2008. Throughout the book, Gladwell references the ‘10,000-Hour Rule.’ He views the rule as a key to achieving world-class expertise in any skill. To a large extent, a matter of practicing the correct way, for a total of around 10,000 hours was a common factor for most successful people. The ‘10,000-Hour Rule,’ is based on a study by Anders Ericsson (5). Gladwell claims that greatness requires an enormous time investment in practice, and he provides several examples, including the Beatles, Bill Gates, and others. Gladwell explains that achieving the 10,000-Hour Rule is the key to success in any field and is simply a matter of practicing a specific task for a long time. The 10,000-Hour Rule can be accomplished with 20 hours of work a week for ten years.” (6)
This is a concise and easy to understand canon, but not without its controversy,
nonetheless. (7) But as a guide the point is clear. We must put an effort into our career if we want to succeed at it. There is no place for impatience in our struggles. Frustration and anxiety will accomplish little and may even reduce or diminish our progress. The secret is to be in the present and yet “cock your eye” to your future success. It is a long-practiced skill. Professor and poet James Fenton (8) leaves us with a thought: An aria in an opera – Handel’s “Ombra mai fu,” (9) for example – gets along with an incredibly small number of words and ideas and a large amount of variation and repetition. That’s the beauty of it. It’s not taxing to the listener’s intelligence because if you haven’t heard it the first time round, it’ll come around again.
A closing thought: Much like meditation, the art of patience and repetition are twins in a life well-lived. If we learn anything in existence, it is that we must develop the habit of stick-to-itiveness. Over time, this will bear the fruits of accomplishment. How is this realized? We usually begin anything – a relationship, a new job, an exercise regime, our first day at university, etc. – with passion. After several weeks, this becomes grating and we reduce its frequency, either in focus or in attendance. This eventually leads to a cessation of the activity. The hidden gem here is routine. You must learn to practice your chosen field with a sense of routine — again and again, recreating the emotion. This will trigger passion to reignite and thus the process begins anew. Think of the long-distance marathon runner. He is respected for finishing, not for the length of the race.
To sum up: This week we spoke about impatience and how it must be controlled if we want to be successful in our own definitive way.
To be noted: From Mahatma Gandhi (10) — Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full victory.
Just for fun: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Clarinet Concerto in A major, K.622
For reflection: Impromptu #1 – You can’t hasten the seasons
This week on your introspective walk, please think how you can control your own impatience.
Every day look for something magical and beautiful.
Quote: Time serves only herself and cannot be dictated to.
Footnotes:
1) Aesop
5) Anders Ericsson, Psychologist and ‘Expert on Experts,’ Dies at 72
6) Malcolm Gladwell – 10,000-Hour Rule
7) Blow to 10,000-hour rule as study finds practice doesn’t always make perfect
8) James Fenton