The five paths to becoming your best at anything

The five paths to becoming your best at anythingThe five paths to becoming your best at anythingIve posted a lot aboutbecoming the bestin your field.Looking back, what are the most successful methods for getting there?1. Work 10,000 hoursLets get the most famous one out of the way firstHard work pays off.Malcolm Gladwell popularized the theory inOutliersapproximately 10,000 hours of deliberate practice at something can turn you into an expert.ViaUngifted Intelligence Redefinedthe most elite violinists accumulated about the same number of hours of deliberate practice (about 7,410 hours) by the age of 18 as professional middle-aged violinists belonging to international-level orchestras (about 7,336 hours)By the age of 20, the most accomplished musicians estimated they spent over 10,000 hours in deliberate practice, which is 2,500 and 5,000 hours more than two less accomplished groups of expert musicians or 8,000 hours more than amateur pianists of the same age.That said, 10,000 hours i s anaverage. And deliberate practice is not just going through the motions.Youve spent more than 10,000 hours driving but that doesnt make you ready for NASCAR or Formula One.Deliberate practicemeansgetting feedback and always pushing to improve. Its notflowand itsnot fun.But itiswhat molds champions.(More on how you can become an experthere.)2. Have great geneticsI wont lie to youbeing a member of the lucky sperm club certainly has its advantages.ViaThe Sports Gene Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic PerformanceEven in this age of hyperspecialization in sports,some rare individuals become world-class athletes, and even world champions, in sports from running to rowing with less than a year or two of training.As with Gobets chess players, in all sports and skills, the only real rule is that there is a tremendous natural range.There are also genetic advantages in the area of music, math and writing.ViaThe Complexity of Greatness Beyond Talent or PracticeHeritability coeffici ents were strongest in music (.92), math (.87), sports (.85), and writing (.83) of the explained variance.This is usually cause for many to throw up their arms and surrender. (These people do not have muchgrit, mind you.)But the existence of genetic advantages doesnt mean you should give up. Id ask you two questionsHave you tried a wide variety of things to see if you possess genetic advantages at any of them?Have you tried aligning your efforts with the areas where you show a level of natural talent?As David Epstein explains, the model is no longer good at sports or not good at sports - its which sport welches your body designed for?ViaThe Sports Gene Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic PerformanceBut, as Norton and Olds saw,as winner-take-all markets emerged, the early-twentieth-century paradigm of the singular, perfect athletic body faded in favor of more rare and highly specialized bodies that fit like finches beaks into their athletic niches.When Norton and Olds plott ed the heights and weights of modern world-class high steckbrckes and shot putters, they saw that the athletes had become stunningly dissimilar. The average elite shot putter is now 2.5 inches taller and 130 pounds heavier than the average international high jumperJust as the galaxies are hurtling apart, so are the body types required for success in a given sport speeding away from one another toward their respective highly specialized and lonely corners of the athletic physique universe.Tall and thin? Try basketball. Short and thick? Weightlifting. Mom and dad are successful engineers? Give math a whirl.Taking advantage of genetic gifts is a matter of finding what your body and mind might have been designed to excel at and aligning your efforts appropriately.(More on genetic advantages - and how I had my own DNA analyzed - here.)3. Be part of a great teamWorking 10K hours and having naturally steady hands can be a great advantage to a doctor butsurgeons only get better at theirhom e hospital.Why? Thats where they know the team best and develop strong working relationships.ViaGive and Take A Revolutionary Approach to SuccessOverall, the surgeons didnt get better with practice. They only got better at thespecific hospitalwhere they practiced.For every procedure they handled at a given hospital, the risk of patient mortality dropped by 1 percent. But the risk of mortality stayed the same at other hospitals.The surgeons couldnt take their performance with them.They werent getting better at performing coronary artery bypass grafts. They were becoming more familiar with particular nurses and anesthesiologists, learning about their strengths and weaknesses, habits and styles.Star analysts on Wall Street? Same thing.ViaGive and Take A Revolutionary Approach to SuccessEven though they were supposed to be individual stars, their performance wasnt portable.When star analysts moved to a different firm, their performance dropped, and it stayed lower for at least five year s.What about for artists? Yeah, baby.ViaGive and Take A Revolutionary Approach to SuccessFrank Lloyd Wrights drought lasted until he gave up on independence and began to work interdependently again with talented collaborators.It wasnt his own idea his wife Olgivanna convinced him to start a fellowship for apprentices to help him with his work.When apprentices joined him in 1932, his productivity soared, and he was soon working on the Fallingwater house, which would be seen by many as the greatest work of architecture in modern history.(More on how your friends can make you a better personhere.)4. Be a giverResearchers who hog the credit on scientific papers are less likely to win a Nobel prize.Those who give younger academics a bit of the spotlight are more likely to have a trip to Stockholm in their future.ViaThe Half-life of Facts Why Everything We Know Has an Expiration DateOne striking finding was the beneficence of Nobel laureates, or as Zuckerman termed it, noblesse oblige.In general, when a scientific paper is published, the author who did the most is listed first.There are exceptions to this, and this can vary from field to field, but Zuckerman took it as a useful rule of thumb.What she found was that Nobel laureates are first authors of numerous publications early in their careers, but quickly begin to give their junior colleagues first authorship. And this happens far before they receive the Nobel PrizeBy their forties, Nobel laureates are first authors on only 26 percent of their papers, as compared to their less accomplished contemporaries, who are first authors 56 percent of the time. Nicer people are indeed more creative, more successful, and even more likely to win Nobel prizes.We think of givers as getting exploited or walked on. And that definitely happens.Wharton ProfessorAdam Grant explained in our interviewWhat I find across various industries, and various studies is theGivers are most likely to end up at the bottom.Thats primarily because they end up putting other people first in ways that either burn them out, or will allow them to get taken advantage of and exploited by Takers.But thats not the end of the story.If giversresist being martyrs, or have a circle of matchers who protect them,they end up on topThen I looked at the other end of the spectrum and said if Givers are at the bottom,whos at the top? Actually, I was really surprised to discover, its the Givers again. The people who consistently are looking for ways to help others are over-represented not only at the bottom, but also at the top of most success metrics.(More on balancing nice with toughhere.)5. Combine themOnly got 5,000 hours and pretty good genetics?Combining these methods can provide powerful results.You dont need to work endlessly or be born brilliant. Theres a very simple formula we can all use to get a benefit from this informationAlways work hard to improve.When choosing tasks and strategies, consider your natural gifts.Pick a great team an d get familiar with them.Within reason, always help others.All other things being equal, I cant imagine how this combination would not lead to an impressive level of success. Can you?Join 45K+ readers.Get a free weekly update via emailhereThis article originally appeared at Barking Up the Wrong Tree.