Patience + Purpose = Performance
Mastery is a never-ending path. Staying on it demands patience and purpose.
A few weeks back, I wrote for New York Magazine an essay on the importance of patience and stick-to-itiveness in the service of long-term growth and the pursuit of excellence. The full piece is here, but in short:
- Getting good at something is almost always really hard and requires lots of time and unyielding commitment.
- Any long-term progression contains inevitable periods of boredom.
- We are hard-wired to seek novelty and stimulation, which is why “quick fixes” and “hacks” can be so appealing — even though they rarely, if ever, work.
- Elite performance, the path of mastery, simply getting the most out of yourself — all these things require patience.
But patience — which we should probably stop considering as an innate given and start considering as a valuable skill — is under an unprecedented attack. Even though we may not realize it, modern technology (in particular our smartphones and the apps they deliver) is conditioning us to expect immediate gratification; what we want, exactly when we want it. Instantaneously and without effort we can answer an obscure question (Google), contact someone across the world (direct-messaging), and even land a date (Tinder).
While there is much about this technology that is wonderful, a significant downfall is that we are becoming less comfortable with stillness, with time and space in which seemingly nothing is happening. One recent study showed that people would rather shock themselves electrically than sit alone without a mobile device for even just a few minutes. A surprisingly unsurprising finding.
Our waning patience is a problem because, in the words of the late and great author George Leonard, “To learn anything significant, to make any lasting change in yourself, you must be willing to spend most of your time on the plateau.”
Take, for example, the development of the world-class runners. Their progress is almost never linear. Rather, it is normal, expected, for elites to spend a lot of time stuck at the same level, putting in months and sometimes years of training before achieving a significant breakthrough. The same holds true for great artists and intellects. The last 20 percent, the gap between good and great, generally takes a long time to close. (There are a number of physiological and neurological reasons as to why this is the case.)
It’s easy to say that the moral of the story is to have patience and stick with something. But that doesn’t mean it is easy to do. Brett Bartholomew, a world-class strength and conditioning coach to many of the world’s best athletes, recently told me at times when he senses an athlete’s persistence and discipline is waning, he encourages them to reflect on their purpose. This is a great approach, and one I recommend everyone use:
- It’s quick to do: Just ask yourself “why” you’re putting in the work toward a goal. (If you can’t answer the question, then perhaps you should move on.)
- It’s backed by science: Studies show that when people reflect on their core values, they are more likely to stick with hard-to-change behaviors.
Reflecting on our purpose is so powerful not only because it gives us a boost in motivation, but also because it creates space between impulse (i.e., the desire to quit what is hard and tiresome for something easier, newer, and more exciting) and action. It reminds us that there is much about a years-long marriage — be it to a sport, a sculpture, an idea, or a person — that is better than the latest and greatest temptation. Choosing long-term growth and mastery over immediate gratification is not easy, but it’s far more fulfilling.
Thanks for reading! If you like what you read, I’d be honored if you checked out and considered pre-ordering my forthcoming book, PEAK PERFORMANCE. You can also follow me on Twitter @Bstulberg, where I share all of my writing and the latest on health and the science of human performance.
Brad Stulberg writes about health and the science of human performance. He’s a columnist at Outside Magazine and New York Magazine.
