Getting Good at Something

I found this interesting tidbit of motivation (anti-motivation?) at the zenhabits blog. It's called, "The Only Way to Become Amazingly Great at Something."

We are a society that is fixated on the idea of being on the move. We never have time for anything. We rush through our day with one task after another with little thought to what could or should be done, just what we must get done.

This same society that values rushing so very much has devalued the art of learning. We want quick fixes; we recoil at the thought of having to actually spend time enhancing our skills. Bookshelves, as pointed out in the article, have a healthy population of books promising to master programming languages and skills in a month's time.

But to truly master something it takes more time. Far more. People who take the shortcuts show their shortcomings the moment they run into someone who has already learned this lesson.

The post outlines what it may take to be great at something. Seeing the estimated journey outlined in stark black and white is daunting to say the least, and more than  a little scary.

But then I remember what Randy Pausch said (as quoted on this website, from his Last Lecture):

Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want something badly enough. They are there to keep out the other people.
- Randy Pausch ( 1960-2008 )

Writing...becoming an author...maybe my fear in failing to achieve that goal is my brick wall. I have every reason to give up. The hardest part is keeping the reason to keep going in view.