Follow my logic to appreciate why practice is an absolute to being successful. Let’s use driving a car as our example.
For comparison, let’s use the Automobile Manufacturer’s average of 12,000 miles that a person drives on average each year. Another way to think of this, many warranties offered are three years or 36,000 miles (this is more conservative than the five years or 100,000 miles).
Thus, we can create a chart showing the annual number of miles driven starting at age 20.
| AGE | # OF MILES |
| 25 | 60,000 |
| 30 | 120,000 |
| 35 | 180,000 |
| 40 | 240,000 |
| 45 | 300,000 |
| 50 | 350,000 |
| 55 | 420,000 |
| 60 | 480,000 |
If I were to show a 25 year old this table and ask, “Do you THINK you are excellent driver?” he/she would might respond Yes.
If I were to show a 35 year old this table and ask, “Do you THINK you are excellent driver?” he/she would likely respond Yes.
If I were to show a 45 year old this table and ask, “Do you THINK you are excellent driver?” he/she would definitely respond Yes.
Now, if I asked that same 45 year old driver if he/she could beat an Indy 500 race car driver in a race, the 45 year old would answer without hesitation,”No way!” Why? The table shows clearly that this person drove three hunnnndreddd thousssanddd miles!!
EXPERTISE IS BORN FROM PRACTICE
The why reason is clear. Expertise. The 45 year old perceives the Indy 500 driver to be an expert, because the driver has been practicing his/her entire career. Expertise is born from practice.
And thus is the morale of my story – practice.
All too often people spend too little time practicing… practicing a presentation, practicing a workplace story, practicing time management skills, and the list goes on. We all have skills, some stronger than others. To strengthen them, we must practice.
Practice, even a little. You’ll never regret the time spent.
Photography Source: Flickr, ph-stop
