“With much patience and hard training, one develops good character.” - Grandmaster Ki Whang Kim
I’m always amazed when someone comes up to me and asks, “Can you teach me how to be a great __________? I have about an hour….”
“Get your black belt at home in my 6-week online/DVD course!”
“Earn a MBA in our 6-month executive program!”
When did skill development go the way of McDonalds?!?! If I can get a hamburger and fries in 60 seconds, I should be able to learn to be a great negotiator in an hour, don’t you think? I’ll just YouTube lessons. Sounds a little silly when you say it out loud, doesn’t it?
Can you quickly learn the basics of a skill set? Absolutely! New students in the martial arts learn most the basic techniques that make up a style in the first few classes. You can read any book on being a good leader or manager in a few hours. I can (and have) watched YouTube videos to learn to play my favorite guitar riffs (no jam sessions for me though).
Knowing the skills and becoming proficient at them are totally different things. Proficiency takes practice. Mastery… a lot of practice. Tiger Woods did not become a great golfer with a 1-hour lesson and then just playing in tournaments. He practiced for 13-hours a day… every day… for decades.
The head of my martial arts school is constantly saying, “Train, just train.” Like sharpening a knife, we hone our skills by practicing them frequently and consistently.
“In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not.” - Albert Einstein
“Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice.” - Anton Chekhov
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