It Looks So Easy!

“A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.”

– Thomas Mann (1875 – 1955), German novelist

23 years ago, I complimented my father’s oncologist on how effortless his work appeared to be for him. “Steve, your father tells me you deal with people, with business matters, with personalities, emotions…” he said. “I am like the auto mechanic,” he went on. “Another doctor has found cancer inside your father’s body. I have simply removed it.”

Watching the NFL games yesterday, those world-class athletes made it look easy to throw and catch a ball with various 250+ pound guys trying to harm them. The waitresses at Oktoberfest don’t even grit their teeth as they lug 7 or 8 heavy glass pints of beer to their tables.

In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell goes in-depth to the “10,000-hour effect,” – and only then did I have math to wrap around “it looks so easy.” It’s about relentlessly putting in the reps, John Wooden would say “perfect practice” (more on that tomorrow) until the activity, the challenge, the competition appears to be effortless for us or whomever we’re watching that put in that time.

It’s not easy. But being prepared is worth it.