We all have lofty goals. When I was a kid, I wanted to be an astronaut. Soon, I realized I would need a master’s degree in space science to become one. That was enough to swing me to baseball instead. Probably a good thing too… there are currently only 19 international astronauts. But that brings me to my question: if I wanted it bad enough, could I have done it?
Houston, We Have a Problem
I do not have genius-level IQ. I am not a physical specimen. I have trouble with tight spaces. Honestly, I probably have a better chance of making it in Hollywood than outer space. With that in mind, the rule of 10,000 hours says I can become a master of something with the right amount of focused practice! I think to myself, “I don’t know, back then I was pretty busy.” The number one limiter people say is holding them back from reaching their dreams: they don’t have enough time.
“I have to get up and go into work my normal 8-hour day. Then I get home and it’s: cleaning, cooking, working from home, the Cubs game… By that time, it’s late and I have to head to bed.” This is a common response when someone is asked why they are so busy. We are confining ourselves to the average person’s schedule. If I need to leave for work by 8:00, the normal person might say a 7:00 AM alarm is good. 6:00 AM is good if I want an hour with the family in the morning. The fact is, if you want to get ahead, that alarm should be set for 5:00 AM. Get UP!
The normal adult only needs 6 hours of good sleep. Eight hours is a FULL night’s rest. Kobe Bryant (The G.O.A.T.) used to get asked how he got so far ahead in his career. He said he would get up at 3:00 AM, eat, and be in the gym for an hour and a half by 5:00 AM. He said this was the key. Even the guys that were working really hard would have a day that went from 5:00 AM to 10:00 PM. Kobe got that extra hour and a half every day.
Over a week that’s 10.5 more hours of work. That may not seem like much, but you stack that across a month and its 45 more hours. Over a year, that is 547.5 more hours than the next-hardest-working guy in the league. Years of this and you go from being very good at something to being a master of your craft.
I Get Too Tired
This happens to the best of us. We get through our day of work, get home and feel extra bogged down. We just want to sit down, kick our boots off and relax for a bit. After some time, we decide to take a shower, feed the dog and flip on the TV. Eventually, this ride takes us right back to the bed we started at. “How am I supposed to get through the day without feeling groggy or having to drain a gallon of Red Bull?” Breathe. Exercise. Separate.
We yawn because our brain is telling us we need oxygen. If we want to wake up, we need to breathe better. We can take short, exasperated breaths to get a flood of oxygen to the brain. Sometimes, we will get the feeling of a cold shower after this kind of breathing. We can also go back to our normal box breathing (this one often makes me slightly more tired at times). Remember here this is 4 seconds in, 4 second hold, 4 seconds out, 4 seconds hold.
Exercise may seem like we are working against ourselves. The truth is, the more we are able to work out and expel our energy, the better our body is at making it. If we get in a rut, it can be hard to get out. Use those endorphins! Our body will constantly replenish them for us. Simple terms: Exercise = More Energy.
Third, be sure to break your days up. When you feel like everything is constantly snowballing and your days are a blur, it is good to separate your days into smaller parts. You get in your car to go to work—that’s one part. You get to work—that is another part. As many little parts as you need. When you get to these transition moments, be sure to breathe and tell yourself on every exhale to “release” any tension or stress from the prior parts of the day. You will find that the more you do this, the better you will feel and the more present you will be during your tasks.
Call Me Spaceman
I believe with the right teaching and the right amount of drive I could have become an astronaut. The ingredient I was missing was drive and the intelligence to back it. The rule of 10,000 hours only works if it is FOCUSED practice. And the only way anyone puts 10,000 hours into something is if they really, really want it. How bad do you want to achieve your goals?
