Several months ago I read some words online saying that, with two hours of practice every day for ten years, we can master virtually any skill. Sure, it’s really just a contemporary rewording of the old-as-dirt axiom “practice makes perfect.” But its definite numbers (two hours, ten years) make it seem more concrete, and thus more attainable. Since then, I’ve been trying to decide what I would devote that much of my life to. Fiction writing? Freerunning?
If you’ve been around me at all since I read this, I’ve probably asked you this question: What would you choose to master with two hours every day for ten years? Here’s a bigger question I keep asking myself: why am I not doing this yet? Maybe I just want to be semi-competent at too many things to focus so much time on any one of them. In the words of the great Robert A. Heinlein, “Specialization is for insects.”