A 5 Year Old Child Can Do It Better
If you search on YouTube for “5 year old child playing Mozart ….. (or any other complex skill), you will likely find that whatever you thought you were proficient at as an adult some over achieving child prodigy can do better.
Watching this Youtube video featuring a scarily advanced primary schooler we come to the stark dual realisation that, (A) someone is always going to be better than us and (B) people far younger than us are achieving feats we previously thought impossible.
This normally coincides with feelings of discomfort as we cast ourselves back to childhood and picture our optimistic younger selves proclaiming “I’m going to be [insert] when I grow up!”. ……. leading us humbly to the understanding that we are an average adult human being.What happened to that anyway? ….. Statistics mostly.
What does it mean to be average?
If you aren’t familiar with it already, let’s get you acquainted with the normal distribution. This lovely curve statistically demonstrates why we can’t all be the ‘best’ or ‘breakthrough’ achievers.
The line straight down the centre represents the average of the population. The population is your group of interest or comparison e.g., 28 year old males in Aus. Either side of this central line are two more lines which sit one standard deviation (SD) away from the mean (a measure of the spread of scores, if you want to know more see HERE).
All you really need to know is that 68% of the entire population sits between those two peripheral lines. Using IQ as an example,
The average IQ, represented by the central line is approximately 100. however, roughly 68% of the population has an IQ between 85 and 115. The standard deviation for IQ is 10. So statistically speaking it is unlikely that you will perform better than average (>1 SD).
Don’t despair just yet! There is more to mastery than performance. I use the word mastery deliberately. Those who excel in their fields are in it for the ‘craft’.
From the famous Japanese artist Hokusai Katsushika,
“From the age of 6 I had a mania for drawing the shapes of things. When I was 50 I had published a universe of designs. But all I have done before the the age of 70 is not worth bothering with. At 75 I’ll have learned something of the pattern of nature, of animals, of plants, of trees, birds, fish and insects. When I am 80 you will see real progress. At 90 I shall have cut my way deeply into the mystery of life itself. At 100, I shall be a marvelous artist.
Hokusai states that “at 100, I shall be a marvellous artist”, his motivation pure and simple is the cultivation of his craft, obtaining a mastery of form. The external validation of publication nothing more than a helpful aside to his true purpose.
We can’t all be as devout as Hokusai but we can learn from his ideals. Hokusai was not concerned that another artist would surpass him in skill. The only bell curve he ever compared himself to was his own ideals of perfection. Coupled with passion and discipline this was all he needed to leave a legacy far greater than himself.
When we stop looking at the topmost segment of the bell curve and focus inwards we gain a deeper insight into what we find valuable and meaningful. Ask yourself, why am I doing this? Follow this up with, why is this important to me?
Lessons from an average life
- Chase intrinsic meaning over external validation
- Value mastery of skill over the outcome
- Focus on incremental achievement over time
- You cannot inspire others without finding inspiration yourself
If you’re going to remember just one thing from this article then I hope it’s the following statement from Seth Godin who strikes right to the heart of the issue,
Your best work isn’t nothing, it’s the heart of what you have to offer. Finding the long, difficult way is worth the journey, because it’s the best way to get what you deserve.
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