The Dangers of giving up too easily

There seems to be a vicious circle where if we are low on confidence we don't persist with a task which then results in failure denting our confidence even further.

Another favourite book of mine; Bounce by Matthew Syed states the case strongly that we can't really give up on something or decide we are no good at it if we don't dedicate enough time to it. And that time has to be used purposefully making constant  improvements based on regular feedback.

Syed, along with others, argues that there is a 10,000 hour rule. In order to become expert at something we have to dedicate all those hours, or 3 hours per day for 10 years to put it another way,  to honing our skills.

Now have a think about all the activities, hobbies and skills we have tried to learn and develop before deciding we are no good. Did we give it 10,000 hours? Did we even dedicate 1000 hours?

This book altered the way I view the world and made me really appreciate the skill we see on the tennis court, football pitch or even board room as it has all been hard earned. There are no quick fixes or easy solutions, just hard work.

I have stopped using the word "talent" completely now as it is unlikely that it exists in the way we perceive it and it is not a helpful concept in the first place. It just gives us a reason to give up as we can claim "We don't have the talent."

Cheers