Last month I wrote a post about Geoff Colvin’s Talent is Overrated. The book describes the process of deliberate practice -- the focused repetition of a skill that, if done for long enough, leads to mastery. Particularly powerful was Colvin’s dispelling of the wunderkind myth. For years it was assumed that world-class performers succeeded because of their pre-ordained greatness. Not so, says Colvin who cites several examples of child prodigies committing at least ten years to deliberate practice before achieving true excellence. In other words, the sublime compositions of Mozart or the golfing genius of Tiger Woods were achieved only after honing their crafts longer and harder than the rest of us.
With a little one on the way in August, my wife is not thrilled with my grand plans of teaching our bub golf or tennis before she can talk. After all, tales abound of aspiring talents burning out early because of parental pressure -- even the pushiest parent can not make up for a lack of intrinsic motivation. To achieve world class performance, practice must be something the child wants to do. As tennis great Bjorn Borg famously said, “You have to find it, no one else can find it for you.”
So what is a parent to do? How does a mother and father team provide the optimum home environment for childhood development? The answer Colvin writes is twofold. Citing a University of Chicago Study led by well-known creativity expert Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Colvin tells us parental encouragement must be both stimulating and supportive. The image above is a visual representation of Colvin’s statement:
“Adolescents living in three of those combinations reported the typical low-interest, low-energy experience of studying. But in the fourth combination, the environment was both stimulating and supportive, students were much more engaged, attentive and alert in their studying.”
Parents providing a supportive and stimulating environment can help nurture a child’s curiosity, enthusiasm and success in any field of endeavor. This ongoing stimulation and support is often the secret behind high achievers’ expertise in their chosen field.
Sounds good in theory -- we’ll see how it goes in practice come August!
