THE FIRST LAW OF SUCCESS IS SATURN = Hard work, stability, effort that produces results over time. Karma, hardship, security, stability, focused effort, bones, teeth, personal reputation (name, respectability) time, structure, evidence, concrete tangible products.
Let me tell you a personal story: My father (A Saturn Ruled Capricorn) is an extremely difficult human being to deal with on a personal level. Probably because he has not devoted any energy that I can see to his own development as a human or spiritual being. However, he taught me something extremely valuable about hard work and dedication to a craft. You see, he is very well known and respected for his artwork. Many would say that he was naturally talented. And it certainly appears so to look at the high quality of the craft of his work. But I know the TRUTH – this is because I grew up watching him create. The TRUTH is that he worked relentlessly on his art all of his life (and all of mine). Not only is this true but he literally came into this world drawing and creating things. I remember my Grandmother telling a story about him; As a little child he used to sit and draw animals and people. He did this extremely well for someone so young (I would say that he had been doing it since previous lifetimes). When my Grandmother (also a Saturn Ruled Capricorn) asked him how he know what to draw he said that he saw the picture already on the paper and he was just bringing it out of the paper. He has been drawing and painting and sculpting for her 70 years at this point.
***There is a LOT more I could go into here about how time as we know it is a lie, the nature of our structured government control mechanisms that reverse the truth of how reality actually works and how manipulation of reality and reputation is used to nail down physical reality in false constructs – but this is too much for one post. Please subscribe for more later, as I will keep posting as fast as I can keep up with all the spiritual downloads I am getting.
Malcolm Gladwell discusses the 10,000 hours rule of success in his book “Outliers.” (amazon aff link) This is based on the statistical model of outliers (Wiki link). The rule of 10,000 hours has been discussed extensively by other thought leaders such as Napoleon Hill in “Think and Grow Rich” and in personal development seminars like those taught by Tony Robbins. Here is his TED Talk:
WHAT is an OUTLIER? This is a statistical model (suddenly I appreciate my 10 unit/1 quarter ass-kicking stats class, lol). OUTLIERS are routinely THROWN OUT of results because they are so far outside the ‘NORM’ that they will skew the results.
This should tell you something about what is ‘normal’ (translation; unremarkable, untrained or untalented) and why. Also, first and foremost in order for a study to be truly representative and worth paying attention to, it must sample a wide, general selection of the population and NOT a self-selecting population. Self selecting population studies can be useful but only in the context of that SELECTED world.
For example: a medical study such as those conducted by all the major pharmaceutical companies MUST ONLY sample a random selection of individuals in order for it’s result to be representative of the human population they will sell their drugs to. Factually speaking, currently this is absolutely never the case. Why? For 2 main reasons;
- These studies are conducted by Doctors and Clinics that are FUNDED by big pharma in order to produce specific results. If you do not understand how this effects the results then I suggest you study spin theory and the concept of ’Shroedinger’s Cat’ as well as the basic economics of how entities actually get funded.
- These studies ALWAYS screen participants first. Sure they make it seem like this screening is for logical and reasonable reasons, but the FACT remains that by pre-screening candidates the study has now made itself INVALID TO THE GENERAL POPULATION.
In other words, you can’t trust most Medical studies.
The 10,000 hours Rule: Ok, so now that we understand what an outlier is, let’s discuss the 10,000 hours rule. Essentially the 10,000 hours rule states that it takes 10,000 hours of doing something to become exceptional at it. It could take years or even decades to become exceptionally good at one thing, because 10,000 hours are what it takes in order for a skill to become perfected. By that 10,000 hour mark we become unconsciously competent at a thing.
What is unconscious competence? Again, personal development seminars teach this idea (I think I have been through my own 10,000 hours of personal development after attending many and working for Peak Potentials for years myself). Here’s the idea in a nutshell; what we do and don’t know can be boiled down into 4 categories:
- What we KNOW
- What we KNOW THAT WE DON’T KNOW
- What we DON’T KNOW
- WHAT WE DON’T KNOW that we DON’T KNOW (this is by far the most dangerous category and it the main cause of IGNORANCE and ARROGANCE. – but this is the subject for another post).
If we divide a circle in to 4 quadrants and break it into quarters then we see that the only way to overcome #4 what we don’t know that we don’t know is through learning or practice. Again, this is best saved for another post. The flip side of this model leads us to Unconscious Competence because the process of LEARNING and the experience of practice has 4 quadrants as well:
- What we don’t know we don’t know (this is why the actual experience of something is NEVER the same as what we imagine it will be like when we have no pre-knowledge of it.) This is also why advertising (lies) work.
- What we know we don’t know but want to learn. Here we are aware that we need to explore in order to obtain some level of understanding or competence about something.
- What we KNOW. This is obtained through effort , action and learning. This an area of life where we will not be easily influenced because we know though applied learning what does and does not work in a certain area. We are now competent in this area, such as driving, after we have done so for over a decade.
- What we know without KNOWING IT = UNCONSCIOUS COMPETENCE. This is when we know how to do something so well that we can trust ourselves to perform it without conscious thought. Professional athletes will routinely tell us that they spent years practicing and now we love to watch them and see them as heroes because they can perform at a degree of mastery that seems almost magical. This is the 10,000 hours rule in practice.
This is what causes someone’s performance in a certain area to be an OUTLIER. This can also be a talent that someone is born with. How? Past life effort is brought forth into this lifetime. All talents and skills are earned, but like the fan of the sports star, he does not see the effort behind it.
You can see why OUTLIERS are thrown out of statistical studies. This is also a reason why real MATHEMATICIANS think that statistics is a fake branch of Math. It actually IS fake math. It can be useful for getting a general feeling for a trend based on the HERD of humanity, but it will not give any insight at all into those who are special, dedicated, hard-working, talented, exceptional, devoted, knowledgeable and masterful.
So, just know that anything statistical is LITERALLY and purposely only focusing on the lowest common denominator. Statistical results are by definition dumb and unconscious. But they are extremely useful for understanding what the dumb and unremarkable are thinking or feeling. The purpose of this post is to help you to understand the 10,000 hours rule and how to apply it in order to become a MASTER at something you wish to be amazingly good at.
Who can the 10,000 hours rule never apply to? To lazy people, people with no follow through, those who refuse to take responsibility for themselves, those who expect things to be given to them or done for them. It can never be mastered by those who do not wish to think for themselves, who will not concentrate, focus or work hard.
THE 10,000 HOURS RULE (TTHR for short) APPLIES TO EVERYTHING – LITERALLY EVERYTHING. This includes love, health, athletic ability, art, music, beauty as well as skills like carpentry, sewing, sports, and critical thinking. Even when someone seems to have a natural talent for something, somewhere somehow they have developed that skill or talent. Everyone who has a skill or talent deserves to be admired and recognized for it, the skill set took an amazing amount of dedication and hard work to achieve.
OK, I can hear some of you thinking; “How can something like love or beauty be given credit under this 10,000 hours law?” I’m glad you asked. It is because of past life effort or effort in an area that is not visible to your eyes. Even beauty is the result of concentrated focus. No, I don’t mean someone who stares at themselves in the mirror all the time and is vain. I mean that a person who has rested their mind on beautiful thoughts becomes beautiful. Someone who spent a lot of time being kind or meditating and creating feelings of love will become beautiful.
In the same way, someone who holds a lot of negative or hateful thoughts will become ugly eventually, even if they started out beautiful. We all know that someone who spends 10,000 hours in athletic activity will end up with a healthy strong body. That is obvious because it is physical. But this law applies on the emotional, mental and spiritual levels as well. Spiritually those who spend all of their time judging and condemning others will eventually become dull and lifeless and without energy. That’s just how it works. This is, in fact, one of the core principles of the idea of KARMA. We all reap what we sow. That is just how it works.
TTHR is in fact the MOST DEMOCRATIC thing on earth, because it is literally open to anyone. Anyone can become masterful at something if they just put in the dedication (hopefully with love and enthusiasm). Newton’s law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. So for every effort there will be an effect produced – always. This is one of the great spiritual laws of the Universe.
Not for FAKES!!! – The 10,000 hours rule should help you to recognize that what something looks like is not the same as mastery. This can be confusing in a world of social media where everyone only ever shares their most magical and best-looking moments. We never see the rough around the edges struggles that exists behind the scenes. Hey, let’s face it, putting 10,000 hours into anything is going to bring up rough, ragged and painful moments. That’s a LOT of dedication! And yet it is the rough and tumble, the grit, the ugly, the frustration, the tears, the moments when we want to give up that actually cause us to value and treasure what we achieve. Things that come easily are rarely ever fully appreciated.
This is why the Mother’s bond to her child is so strong, for normal non-narcissistic people. After all that childbirth, not to mention the 9 months of pregnancy, you can’t help but love this little being who is now in your life. Especially with natural child birth. (I was unable to do this, but my hat’s off to those who have). I believe it was made this way by design, so that children would always have someone to love and care for them. Of course raising that child is at least another 10,000 hours, so clearly Fathers have a huge role to play here, although it starts out a little differently.
ENCOURAGING! – This should be encouraging to those who have worked hard and not seen results from their efforts, because eventually there will be a harvest. This is the law of the Universe. If you have not seen it yet, just keep at it, results will come. If you are discouraged because there appears to be too much effort ahead of you, just know that the same effort is required of everyone. It may not appear this way because there is no way for you to know what effort a soul has put into something in previous incarnations. Just know that if YOU put the effort in, you WILL achieve mastery. There is no way to avoid it. It is universal law. As long as you keep moving towards your goal, you will achieve it.
Malcolm Gladwell is the author of “Blink,” “The Tipping Point” and “What the Dog Saw” in addition to “Outliers.” I highly recommend all of his books, if nothing else they are highly encouraging to anyone who is an artist, athlete, business builder, entrepreneur or wants to become extraordinary in any area of life.
To put it another way; there is no such thing as an overnight success. And, as my Step-Mother used to say, “There is no such thing as luck. Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.”
So, I will leave you with two Quotes that my Mother kept up on the wall at home:
“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
– Calvin Coolidge
