Greatness revisited

A friend asked me today if I had ever put in the "10,000 hours" needed to achieve mastery in any of the skills I have tried to develop. For the unfamiliar, I was lamenting about the "sea of mediocrity" in which I seem to have spent my life: Jack of all trades, master of none.

He also implied that to arrive at greatness, one has to be in the right place at the right time.

I homed in on two words: mastery and greatness.

It may well be that huge amounts of practice time are required to reach mastery. Ten thousand hours is the equivalent of five years of 40-hour a week effort. Not many of us are willing or able to devote that much time to an avocation. An hour a day comes to 365 hours a year. So to reach the 10,000 hour threshold would require 27 years.

This isn't an unreachable limit, but certainly requires persistence and dedication. I also imagine that somewhere along the way I would require "progress payments:" that is, indications of progress to motivate me and justify my investment of time.

It is at this point that I seem to have failed. Golfers, runners, and other skill-builders tell me that they periodically "hit a wall" where it seems like they will never progress further, but they ultimately "break through." I can only conclude that my walls have been to high or thick for me to have the patience.

On the other hand, perhaps I really did lack that one magic ingredient: talent.

In spiritual matters, we all have the span of our lives to practice until we either give up or progress toward "mastery." Here, I think, is where the "right place at the right time" enters my spiritual journey. I have heard how some soar to the pinnacle of spiritual enlightenment in a moment of epiphany. For me, God has said (s)he doesn't work that way.

But at least this is one quest I have not given up on. Do I have 10,000 hours in? If I count 24 hours a day as being practice in my spiritual journey, I should have reached mastery between my fourteenth and fifteenth month of life. Obviously I didn't. At twenty minutes a day I am unlikely to make it before my life is over. But, by the same logic, if I live spiritually every waking moment from now on, the possibility exists that I will reach that moment at the correct time when I'm at the right place, too.

On the other hand, God just might change his/her mind and provide me with an epiphany.

The peace of God be with you.