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  • Jan. 10, 2009

    Books provide key lessons

    By Edward T. Creagan, M.D.

1 comment posted

During the holiday season, I had the opportunity to read 2 provocative books which clearly resonate with similar messages you've brought forth. I'd like to share them.

In "Outliers: The Story of Success," Malcolm Gladwell asks a crucial question: What can we learn about the super achievers of life; the musician, the artist, the athlete, those individuals who have a unique gift and maximize that gift. He points out some fundamental observations.

  • Yes, there is a minority of the gene pool with a unique gift, whether it be in art or music or architecture.
  • Each of these individuals obviously has a biological advantage, but for the gift to be developed, they all must have a social or economic environment which nurtures and cultivates that gift. A child born into the grinding poverty of a rural state or urban chaos clearly has an uphill struggle compared with the child from an affluent, nurturing family.
  • However, the exceptional individual must commit a focus, a fanatical attention to develop that gift or it will never be maximized. The "number" which Gladwell quotes with some confidence is 10,000 hours. In other words, if the musician or the artist or the architect or that gifted person does not make that kind of time commitment, it is unlikely they will ever reach the pinnacle of their success. The "prodigy" can only become a prodigy by working at the skill.

A companion book which resonates with the same theme is "The 4-Hour Work Week," by Timothy Ferriss.

Ferriss makes an important argument: We are bombarded with information, we are bombarded with distractions, and if we do not budget our time and energies, we will never achieve our maximal gifts or skills.

Along with Gladwell, Ferriss makes the point that control of our attention and control of our time to some extent is within our power. He recommends a couple of notions which we have heard from you.

  • If we are distracted by the phone call, the knock on the door, or the annoying e-mail, it will take us between 17 and 47 minutes to get back on track.
  • If we need to really do something, we must focus our energies and our efforts to get the task done. This means turning off the television, turning off the cell phone, and drilling into the task at hand.
  • He also makes the point that work will expand to fit the time allocated. If we have 3 hours to do a project, guess what, it will take us 3 hours to do it. So, Ferriss underscores the importance of having a timetable, of having deadlines, otherwise, our time can get squandered.

Now, I am realistic. There is no one book or no one author that will provide the key to the kingdom, but these books for me were profoundly insightful.

Are there aspects of these issues that the authors may have overlooked? Please share your thoughts.

1 comment posted

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  • January 15, 2009 7:44 a.m.

    I particularly experience all of Feriss' points esp when he says "work will expand to fit the time allocated".So, in order to identify our optimum capacity to do something, we must do it with 100% attention with just it on the mind & then see how long it took us to finish the task. Also, with continued consistant practice, this time frame should shrink with gain in our expertise. In today's world, "undiverted attention" is becoming rarer letting in inadequacies & undue stress which form a vicious cycle. The way to break it is:Identify(tasks)-Prioritize(tasks)-Focus(on one at a time)-Work(on one at a time)-Review(the entire process with results).

    - Saaransh Desai

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