Greatness

Apparently, according to Malcolm Gladwell (author of Tipping Point, Blink, and now Outliers), it takes 10,000 hours before anyone can become great at anything. (Well, maybe not anything. I'm guessing something relatively simple like laundry or watching TV doesn't apply. Or does it? I do know a few people for which movie watching is an art form. But for now, let's confine this statistic to anything that requires a certain degree of specialization.) As someone who finds herself reevaluating her life and what she wants to contribute to the world--and as someone who has to put up a fight so as not to shut down in the face of failure--I find that figure more than a little intimidating.

Would you agree that greatness really takes that long to develop? I guess I did probably put more than 5000 hours into my college degree, and I definitely wouldn't argue that having a bachelors makes me "great."

I wonder how many hours it takes to become, let's say, better than average at something. To make into the 75 or 80 percentile range. I think I could work with that for a while before aiming for greatness. Now if only I could commit to what that "something" should be...

Is there a skill you're attempting to master? Do you think you've worked up to 10,000 hours yet?