“They” Say it takes ten-thousand hours of practice to achieve mastery of something. Ten. Thousand. Hours. It’s kind of mind boggling. By that metric, if you were to set aside ten hours a week to draw, you’d log five-hundred twenty hours a year. Every two years, would be one-thousand forty hours. At that rate, it would take you twenty years to achieve mastery. Just in time to retire.
What “they” don’t tell you though, is that it doesn’t all have to be done all at once. Nor does it have to be done in a special “drawing time” that you’ve set aside. Every doodle you make during a class, meeting, or phone call counts. Every map you draw when giving directions, counts. Every smiley face in a fogged bathroom mirror, every Pictionary game, every unicorn hastily scribbled on a restaurant napkin for your bored six-year-old daughter…it counts.
Not only do those things count, but “they” also don’t tell you that you’ve already started logging those hours. Every macaroni portrait and torn paper rainbow you made in the first grade counted. Every junior high science fair project that required diagrams counted. Every piece of artwork you’ve ever made, counts towards that total.
The other thing “they” don’t tell you is that it doesn’t really end at ten-thousand. That’s really just the beginning. It’s not insurmountable though, because you’re already on your way and building up steam. Before you know it, you’ll be doing ten-thousand every two years, because that’s your life and you love it.
Now get out there and draw or make or cook or play something!