Angela Duckworth, author of the best-selling book 'Grit', wanted to know why she isn't any faster than she was years ago despite going for a run almost every day.
She asked famous researcher Dr. Anders Ericsson, the world's foremost expert on elite performance who unearthed the '10,000 hour rule' concept, for answers.
Duckworth told him she'd put in thousands of hours of running since she was eighteen, but her times are essentially the same.
Dr. Ericsson asked her some critical questions.
"Do you have a specific goal when you run?"
"Do you keep a log of how far or how fast you ran each time?"
"What do you think about when you run?"
Duckworth replied to the first question that her goal was to be healthy and to fit in her jeans. She did not track her progress.
To the last question, she said she's usually thinking about what she had to later do that day.
Ericsson told her these are the reasons you've put in the time, but see no progress.
Why?
Because no matter whether your practice revolves around physical or mental development, the rules are the same.
To get better you must have a vision of where you want to go, you must stay attuned to progress you're making (or lack thereof), and you must be 100% focused on the task in front of you.
She has been doing none of these, so despite the time she's put in Duckworth is the same as she's always been.
For all of us adults who simply want to keep what we've got, this is perfectly fine.
For a younger athlete who dreams of being strong enough and fast enough to compete at higher levels, it isn't.
We've seen many athletes over the years who've made incredible progress in a short period of time because everything they did mattered.
Every set and rep was tied to a vision of where they wanted to go.
That vision was supplemented by an endless number of short term goals - add 5 lbs to a lift, run 0.2 seconds faster on a sprint, fix a technique error, etc.
And they were always focused when it was time to work, or to learn how to improve. They are the kids who look you in the eye when you're teaching them, fully immersed in the task at hand.
We aim to help every athlete in our program train in this way, because we know how incredibly valuable it is for them.
Sometimes the message gets through, sometimes it doesn't.
For many, there comes a day when things just click. What used to be a poor approach to training all of a sudden looks a lot like what Dr. Ericsson described.
Elite performers are goal driven and fully focused on their training. It's what slowly separates them from everyone else.
Are you training at this level?
