From owning it in the boardroom, to learning to play a new instrument, we can all become experts, says Niamh O’Reilly, but we’ve got to be willing to graft to get there.

We’ve all heard people claim to be experts when they’re in the pub, but if you want to upskill your career, snag that promotion, become fluent in Mandarin or sit in the Mastermind hotseat, according to the research you can succeed even if you don’t have a natural flair for it. The catch? You’ve got to put in the time. 

They say that to become an expert in something you need to put in 10,000 hours of practice. That’s three hours a day for one year and 51 days. The idea of practising something for 10,000 hours may sound as appealing as root canal treatment, when you break it down into bitesize nuggets, it’s a lot more achievable.

In ITV’s A Year to Change your Life, presenter Davina McCall met a contestant who would make a pledge to change their lives and come back in a years’ time. With some slick editing skills, they’d magically reappear through a smoky door, their Stars in Their Eyes-style transformation complete.  While the show focused on the superficial end of the scale, it underpins the idea that a year to make a real change is achievable.

It all depends on what you’re doing however. A year getting good enough at sea swimming to cross the English Channel is not a welcome prospect if you hate the cold; and that’s the point. For some, long-term commitment is not an easy path to walk. If it was a breeze, we’d all be genuine experts at everything and just imagine the conversations in the pub then.

But where does the 10,000 hour idea come from? It was plucked from a piece of research written in 1993 by the now late Swedish psychologist Anders Ericsson, who is often referred to as the ‘expert on experts’.  His research involved studying a group of young violinists over several years and charting their progress. He concluded that 10,000 hours (and often more) was required to become an expert, rather than natural talent alone. Malcolm Gladwell then took the idea to the masses in his 2008 book, Outliers and it soon became the magic number.

For Ericsson however, it’s not so much the number of hours you put in, but how you practice that matters.  He called it ‘deliberate practice’. Mindlessly practicing something to simply maintain the status quo won’t cut it. He believed that to progress, a person had to consistently push themselves out of their comfort zone and have the mindset of wanting to improve, not simply learn.

Katie Doyle, founder of Mentor Her tends to agree. “I think any expert would tell you there's always more to learn. By staying ahead of the crowd, always learning and upskilling, you can hopefully overcome that feeling of insecurity and rise above the little voice telling you you're not good enough.” Doyle founded Mentor Her in 2020 with the purpose of increasing the number of women supporting women in the workplace.

It's a belief echoed by Alison Clarke, an executive coach who works with women to reach their potential. “Success leaves clues”, she says “and walking in the footsteps of someone who has gone before you can be very motivating and inspiring.”

But what about natural talent? Surely that’s got to count for something? Turns out Ericsson did not rate in the equation. He believed that experts are ‘made and not born’, whereas others like Gladwell insisted that an innate talent was critical; would Elvis or Lady Gaga have been as successful if they didn’t possess inherent charisma and talent?

The 10,000 hour rule has been debunked in further studies. Most recently, psychologists from the University of Cleveland replicated Ericsson’s original study and concluded that practice wasn’t as crucial as he had thought.

"10,000 hours has become entrenched in our culture, but it's an oversimplification," Brooke McNamara told The Guardian. "When it comes to human skill, a complex combination of environmental factors, genetic factors and their interactions explains the performance differences across people.”

Ultimately, it’s a combination of things that makes one an expert, but how can we apply all of this to our daily lives in a practical way?

Challenge Yourself

According to Ericsson in his book Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise, we’ve got to constantly evaluate and challenge ourselves. “First, figure out what is holding you back. What mistakes are you making, and when? Push yourself well outside of your comfort zone and see what breaks down first. Then design a practice technique aimed at improving that weakness”.

Seek a Mentor

“A mentor can help guide and nudge you in the right direction, act as a soundboard, provide insights and advice and support when you need it most”, explains Katie Doyle. “Mentors give you the confidence to go for big opportunities and support you.” But it’s about more than just advice. “Surrounding yourself with the right people is important,” she insists. “If you're surrounded by naysayers and negativity then you won't go very far, as you'll be questioning yourself at every turn. Making friends with other positive and ambitious people that are not in competition with one another but rather happy to champion others' success is key”.

Back Yourself

Self-confidence is critical for success; however, some women can find themselves up against outdated and misogynist attitudes. In the past, females at the top were often perceived as ‘bossy’ whereas a male counterpart was simply ‘the boss’. Women frequently need to work twice as hard to smash the double standards that persist in some corners of the world. “As a woman, becoming an expert in your field often comes with a battle with the imposter syndrome that makes you feel you'll never really be good enough to be called an expert in anything”, explains Katie. “It's important to put those feelings to bed and find a way to reinforce your expertise and your confidence within yourself before anybody else.”

Enjoy It

What many of the academic studies omitted was enjoyment. If you like what you are doing, you will naturally spend more time doing it. “Working towards your goals is one thing but working towards your goals in alignment with what you value is another” says Alison. “That's the real differentiator between a woman simply achieving her goals and achieving her goals but with a deep sense of fulfilment.”

We’ve all heard the phrase ‘if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life’. Becoming an expert in an activity or field that you enjoy or have a real interest in is going to be an easier, more successful prospect than something you abhor or find utterly boring, so choose wisely.

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