Thanks so much your for post! I’ll have to check out those books. Let me klnow how you progress toward your 10000 hours!

This is perfect timing! I’ve been thinking a lot about motivation and talent lately, much in the same way you mentioned: ie, if you think you don’t have it, you aren’t tempted to bother to work at getting it, but if you think you don’t need it, you just might work hard and make great progress! I must admit that I was stuck in the first way of thinking for a long time, but reading a couple of books really helped: Bounce by Matthew Syed, and Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. Both discuss the 10,000 hours theory, of which I am a big fan. I’ve started tracking my hours towards 10,000 hours of art practice. I’m up to about 4 now! The funny thing is that without that idea, I only had a vague desire to “get better” but without a keen idea of how to do that. Now, the simple trick of getting to add another +1 to my sum total makes me feel really excited to practice. It’s a lot like getting a gold star in elementary school.

So, just to share some things that motivate me, reading books like that for sure! And listening to upbeat, positive, energetic music (hey, AC/DC’s still positive!), and I LOVE watching the VH1 story about Journey. And of course, hanging around positive, energetic people.

Right – I have just enough time this evening to add .5 hours to the total! I’m out. : )

Have a great day…..

April