Take Your Time: It Will Probably Benefit You in the Long Run

We often hear stories about ‘late bloomers’ in life and how age should not be an indicator of if or when you should try something new. You know, lines like, “Vera Wang didn’t design her first dress until 40”. And while it’s encouraging to hear stories like these, there’s more to the idea of taking your time than just reduced pressure to succeed. According to journalist David Epstein and his hugely popular TED Talk, ‘falling behind’ and finding your specialty later on can actually be a huge benefit to you.

Take your time: You don’t need to specialise early

In his talk, Epstein touches on the ‘10,000 hours rule‘ and how many believe that spending a good chunk of time practising one activity should make you a pro. However, his research has suggested that may not always be the case. In fact, he suggests that it often isn’t.

“So when I became the science writer at Sports Illustrated magazine, I got curious. If this 10,000 hours rule is correct, then we should see that elite athletes get a head start in so-called ‘deliberate practice’.  This is coached, error-correction-focused practice, not just playing around,’ he said.

But on reviewing scientific studies of elite athletes, Epstein discovered something different to what he expected.

“[Elite athletes] They tend to have what scientists call a ‘sampling period,’ where they try a variety of physical activities, they gain broad, general skills, they learn about their interests and abilities and delay specialising until later than peers who plateau at lower levels.”

Effectively, he noticed that often, elite athletes took their time to land on the specific sport they would go on to specialise in. While, of course, this isn’t always the case, Epstein argued that it is a trend that pops up in other domains too.

He added that according to research from a world-class music academy, “the exceptional musicians didn’t start spending more time in deliberate practice than the average musicians until their third instrument”.

The same can be said of education. In his TED Talk, Epstein pointed to a study of higher education programs in England and Scotland. In this study, an economist found that early specialisers made more money sooner and found work faster. However, the income gap closed in six years, and the early specialisers began abandoning their career paths in much larger numbers.

In essence, the point Epstein made in his talk is that despite all the success stories that come from taking your time and figuring out what you enjoy, we still love to sell the narrative that becoming an expert early is the ideal road to take. Why?

“We never really hear developmental stories like this, do we? We don’t hear about the research that found that Nobel laureate scientists are 22 times more likely to have a hobby outside of work as are typical scientists,” he said.

“We never hear that. Even when the performers or the work is very famous, we don’t hear these developmental stories.”

But we should. Because it shows the value in experimenting and learning other skills before landing on a specialty. It highlights that not only is success not a race, but pushing to get to the top first may add pressure for little reward.

So slow down. Get curious. Try new things. It may be a longer road, but it’s a far more satisfying one.