The power of repetition is immensely powerful. How do surgeons become elite? By practicing for thousands of hours in medical school. How do athletes become elite? By training for thousands of hours in the gym. The power of repetition is undeniable, but unfortunately it isn’t something that is highlighted in our society. Too often, we glamorize the idea that the gifted were simply born with their skills. We idealize the concept of being “born with talent,” and neglect to talk about the hard work that is put in. Let’s take a look at the true power of repetition and why you should believe in it.

The 10,000 Hour Theory

Author Malcolm Gladwell developed a theory based on the power of repetition, called the 10,000 hour theory. The 10,000 hour theory essentially states that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to master any skill. This 10,000 hours can come in any time frame, but it has to be completed in order to become elite at something. You may not need to put in 10,000 hours of work, but it is important to understand the amount of time that you’ll need to commit to in order to reach your goals.

You Can’t Become An Expert Overnight

You can’t avoid the need for repetition. You can’t skip the line and become elite at a skill in a day or even a week. It takes months and sometimes years of practice to truly master a skill and to reach your full potential. Thinking that you can become an expert overnight is only going to set yourself up for failure and frustration. Avoid this and instead focus on how and where you can get in your practice repetitions. If you need to work on being a better speaker, maybe you could take classes on public speaking. If you need to learn how to code in Python, you can take online workshops. But you need to focus on the idea of repetition, instead of dreaming of overnight success.

Embrace The Process

To reach your full potential, you’ll have to embrace the process of getting reps. That means staying locked in on your reps, even before you are thinking about the outcomes of your work. Think of it like a basketball player. If you are thinking about how many jump shots are going in before you get your form right, then you are going to get frustrated. But if you put the process of getting the form right first, then it doesn’t matter how many shots you miss at the beginning. You know that eventually, you will get the form right and the shots will go in. It is the same way with other things that you have to practice in life. It is important to realize the power of repetition. Nobody is born successful. Talent isn’t innate. People put in thousands of hours of work to become elite at their craft. If you want to master a skill, then you need to be willing to put in that same amount of time.