The Road To The Top
On Wednesday, I received an email that got me thinking about how important it is to take the road less traveled. It’s a topic that I continually share with my three oldest boys (the other 2 are still a little young to understand).
I’m always thinking about creative ways to demonstrate to them to the value of practice and repetition. 99% of the kids nowadays want nothing to do with any form of hard work…they would rather sit mindlessly in front of a TV playing Xbox.
In the past, my wife and I have given them a list to check off when they have completed certain activities they are required to practice every day.
But our method for getting them to practice was completely re-vamped this week when I got an email that shed a whole new light on the subject.  I believe this is a creative way to accomplish anything you want in life. That’s why I’m sharing this with you now.
The email was from my friend Matt Furey, and he calls this the Law of Practice. He suggests to make a chart with 10,000 small squares on it and tack it, on the wall in a place you can see it everyday.
Every time you put in one hour of practice in the specific skill you are working on, you can check off one square.
Imagine the possibilities…what could you accomplish in any area of your life if you actually did this?
I drove this point home to my boys when they recently attended a Lacrosse camp at DU. All three were amazed at the stick control of the coaches…in particular the gentlemen in the center of the picture.
His name is Matt Brown, he plays professionally for the Denver Outlaws. If you know anything about Lacrosse, you know excellent stick control is everything. Great players look as though they are ambidextrous, while it is the average players that only use their dominate hand.
A very low percentage are actually born ambidextrous. So how do they attain these great stick skills? Massive amounts of time practicing…They have applied the Law of Practice.
Matt Brown reinforced this when he told my boys a story about playing wall ball. As a kid (and even to this day), he puts in hours upon hours of playing catch by himself off a wall to develop and retain the necessary skills to be one of the best players in the world.
Regardless of the skill set you want to accomplish, this daily habit will put you in the top 1% in any field you choose. If you think about it, 1500 hours would probably put you in the top 1%.
The road to the top in any field is littered with people who only dedicate 10 to 15 hours before quitting. This should be music to your ears!
The road to the top in any field is wide open to You right now.
Do you want to be a great musician? Check off the 10,000!
Do you want to be in the best shape of your life? Check of the 10,000!
Do you want to be a Great trader, live where you want to live, work when you want to work, have plenty of time for family and friends, donate your time to serve others, take vacation whenever you want…etc? Check off the 10,000!
As for me, I’m adding three more charts to my wall this week.
Best,
Jeffrey
5 Responses to “The Road To The Top”
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“Law of Practice” it seems so simple yet so creative!. I have put 10,000 to paper and will take action on it.
Thanks for sharing this Jeff!
Hey Brent,
Glad you’re part of the Credit Spread Trading Made Simple Tribe! It’s just a matter of time before you become the All-Star of the Month.
JZ
matt furey has the secret which is really no secret at all. which is when you truly want something you will find a way to get it done. matt’s bodyweight exercise system is as basic as they come but will deliver the most results if applied correctly. matt was the reason i found j.z. and credit spreads. if matt’s wife who speaks english as a second language could grasp this and become successful i knew i could as well. it turns out i was correct. i was typical of that 90% of people who started off great guns and then quit after awhile when success does not come immdediatley. after about 6 months of no credit spread study or exercise i have resumed both and of course the results are much more positive and i am back in the zone. it’s really just that easy.
Jeff,
Nice post! A wise man once told me that most “overnight successes” actually take 10 years. It’s nice to know that 10,000 hours works out to only 4.8 years assuming 40 hours per week. That’s not so bad.
-Eric
Hi Jeff,
I first read about this idea of 10,000 hours to mastery in Michael Masterson’s Early to Rise newsletter. In that article he mentioned that a person could cut that number down significantly (I don’t remember exactly by how much) by modeling someone who had already achieved mastery of your goal or by being coached by someone who had already achieved mastery. So. . . thanks for all the great coaching and inspiration for those of us who want to learn to be great credit spread traders. Regards, Laurie L.