<Mastery is a mindset/Mastery is a pain(The pain is enough to encourage most of us to quit)>

 2019 US Open테니스 여자단식에서 우승한 비앙카 안드레스쿠의 환영행사가 어제 오후 미시사가에서 있었다. 19세의 약관이 레전드 세리나 윌리엄즈를 이기고 캐나다 첫 그랜드슬램 우승자가 되었으니 떠들석 할만도 했다. 저스틴 트루도 수상, 존토리 토론토 시장, 헤이젤 맥컬리온 전 미시사가 시장, 보니 크롬비 현 미시사가 시장 등이 참석했다. 

 오늘(2019년 9월 16일) 아침 신문 토론토 스타에 짐 콜이라는 사람의 글(opinion)이 실렸는데 공감하는 부분이 많아 올려놓는다.

 글에서 인용한 세 권의 책‘The Talent Code and The Little Book of Talent(Geoff Colvin)’, ‘The Power of Habit(Charles Duhigg)’, ‘Drive(Daniel Pink)’은 별도로 사서 읽어볼 생각이다. 청소년들이 한번쯤 읽어볼 만한 글이라 생각되어 올려놓는다.

 

<Andreescu wasn't born to greatness, she earned it>

 

 A trope almost instantly trotted out to explain the star burst that is Bianca Andreescu is that the teen tennis champion was “born” to such glories and greatness.

 There is, however, a growing body of scientific literature on what really separates world-class achievers from the rest of us, and which suggests how unfounded such claims are.

 As author Daniel Coyle said in his books The Talent Code and The Little Book of Talent, experts say elite talent is determined “far less by our genes and far more by our actions: specifically, the combination of intensive practice and motivation that produces brain growth.”

 It is not mere practice, but what is called “deep practice” or “deliberate practice” — the willingness not to lazily take dozens of outside jump shots that we’re already pretty good at, but to stretch beyond one’s ability, to spend time in the “zone of difficulty.”

 In Talent is Overrated, Geoff Colvin writes that “deliberate practice is hard. It hurts. But it works. More of it equals better performance. Tons of it equals great performance.”

 The required concentration is so intense that it’s exhausting, Colvin said.

“Contemporary athletes are superior not because they’re somehow different but because they train themselves more effectively.”

 From Michael Jordan to Tiger Woods, Jerry Rice to Bianca Andreescu, there are many examples of those who worked their way to a greatness that later seemed to observers like it was their destiny.

 Most of us, irrespective of any natural genetic advantages, won’t pay the price because it is, in most cases, far higher than we even grasp.

 Albert Einstein once said that a “one must develop an instinct for what one can just barely achieve through one’s greatest efforts.”

 As Daniel Coyle puts it: “Most of us instinctively avoid struggle, because it’s uncomfortable. It feels like failure.

 “However, when it comes to developing your talent, struggle isn’t an option — it’s a biological necessity.”

 There’s no question that Andreescu has physical attributes that lead to – but do not guarantee – success.

 One is the capacity for obsessiveness, the single-minded focus that enables sacrifice in other areas of life.

 Another is “grit,” what Coyle calls the “mix of passion, perseverance and self-discipline that keeps us moving forward in spite of obstacles.”

 He said grit isn’t inborn. It’s developed, like a muscle.

 In his book The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg examines the case of U.S. Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps.

 As a youth, Phelps already had the physical attributes of a champion swimmer but not the temperament. His coach designed a series of behaviours that Phelps could use to calm himself and focus.

 One was to “watch the videotape. Watch it before you go to sleep and when you wake up.”

 The videotape wasn’t real. It was a mental visualization of the perfect race.

 It is already legend, of course, how Andreescu applied that technique, announcing that she had won tournaments before they began and written herself a championship cheque for winning the U.S. Open years before very many people knew her name.

 Daniel Pink said in his book Drive that “mastery is a mindset” and “mastery is a pain.” The pain is enough to encourage most of us to quit.

 Hard skills are about repeatable precision and are very much built by seemingly endless repetition and practice — say the ability to stroke a tennis ball within inches of the line over and over again.

 Soft skills are about recognizing patterns and working past obstacles. Coyle calls them the Three Rs: Read, Recognize, React.

 Again, he said, these are not genetic attributes. They are developed by repetition.

 None of this is to say that any one of us, with effort, could have done what Andreescu did.

 It argues only that none of us is born to the sort of accomplishment she committed to and won. To say so sells her short.

 Colvin said that to excel “you’ve got to know what you want to do, not suspect it or be inclined toward it or be thinking about it.”

 From a very early age, Andreescu knew. And as an old TV ad used to say, she got to the top the old-fashioned way.

 She earned it.

 (Toronto Star Mon., Sept. 16, 2019 page A 11 / by Jim Coyle)

 

 Jim Coyle is a Humber College journalism instructor who tells his students great writers aren’t born but made.