TED Talk #8: What Does It Take to Master Something?

Everyone wants the easy route.
The quickest way to get somewhere.  Why waste time?

They enter an address into the GPS just to find a way to get to a destination a little bit quicker.
No, don't go this way.  Go that way!  It will shave 3.457 minutes off your driving time.  3.457 minutes.... Phew, that was a close one.  What a waste it could have been. That's time you can never get back.

We are always rushing.
Fastest is better.
Quicker.
Shortcuts.

Well, that may work when we are driving around town, but that's not how it is in the real world.

Usually, when someone focuses on the fastest way, they ignore the best way. How many times have you sped through a project, just to get it done?  Sure, it's a little messy.  The details are not quite developed.  Some parts may be missing.  You may have finished quickly, but show no spirit of excellence.

This is a problem.

If we truly want to be excellent at something, we need time: time to create, time to think, time to practice, time to bounce ideas around, time to play, time to explore, time to master.

You want to be a master.... a master of something :)  I challenge you to find your passion, like our TED talk speaker today, whatever it may be.  Find that passion and then throw yourself into it.  Don't just take the easy way out.  Don't just throw things together and call it finished.  Take the time.  Use the energy.  Dive deep.  Have a spirit of excellence.  After, weeks, months, years, decades... you may be able to call yourself a master one day.

It took a long time for our speaker today to find his passion.  He failed at so many other things.  He was told he was dumb.  Told he wouldn't amount to anything.  Told he was a disappointment. Then, one day,  he found it.  What he was most passionate about: the yo-yo!

Today, check out  Japanese yo-yo world champion BLACK as he tells his inspiring story of finding his life's passion, and gives an awesome performance that will make you want to pull your yo-yo out of the closet.

Let his talk inspire you to find or jump into your own dreams!

You deserve a chance to be excellent.

You owe it to yourself to become a master.