3 Thoughts on Improvement

You know...getting really good at something takes a long time.

I'm not talking about a few months, or a year, or three years.

I've heard about Malcolm Gladwell's book, Outliers, which apparently claims that success in a field takes around 10,000 hours of practice, or, on average, 10 years.

I don't know about 10,000 hours or 10 years, but I agree that success often takes a long time to achieve.  Getting really good at something takes a long time and a lot of practice.

But that's okay.  How insulting would it be to those people in their various fields if anyone could learn anything in a short period of time?  Besides, the long learning curve of a craft makes it more valuable, both financially and personally.  We despise what comes easily.

Working on my caricature book project has been a love affair with improvement.  I've been improving myself while trying to teach other people how to improve more qiuckly.  So, I have some thoughts on the subject:

Get a Teacher (At Least, Read Some Books)
I'll admit that I romanticize independent learning.  The path of the lonely genius.  That sounds good to me.  The problem is that learning things on your own takes too long.  You'll miss out on better solutions to problems.  You'll get stuck on things that a teacher could immediately point out.  You'll possibly develop bad habits.  Basically, you're just going to cost yourself a lot of time, and who wants to waste that?

Quit being so independent and stubborn.  Learn from other people.  No one succeeds alone.  You might as well embrace that now and save yourself a lot of grief.

Don't Practice on Autopilot
This is a big one for me.  I live on autopilot.  Think while you practice.  Analyze.  Experiment.  Write things down.  Figure out what works and what doesn't.  Root out the bad habits.  Practice deliberately, and you will learn much more.  Learning doesn't have to be an accident.

Cultivate a Curious Mind
This is another big problem for me.  I think in terms of success and failure.  If I succeed I am happy (maybe), and I'm angry if I fail.  A much better way, which I've learned from my friends, is to cultivate an attitude of curiosity.  A person who is curious doesn't get angry if something "fails."  They make a mental note and continue being curious and having fun.  There is no bigger impediment to learning than anger.  Anger causes you to lose lessons.  It causes you to stop working, because your emotions build up like a dam.  Be curious, not angry.

I've learned that, most of all, we need to chill out and enjoy the process.

Man, that's tough.