Jerry Fahrni

Non-Clinical Medical Jobs: “According to this article on TheLadders.com: “It takes 10,000 hours of dedicated effort to become an expert performer in any field.”

Dan Coughlin from The Coughlin Company attributes the conclusion above to the best-selling books “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell and “Talent is Overrated” by Geoff Colvin as well as the new hit TV comedy series, Modern Family. Dan writes about his personal experiences as a consultant for 12 years and he says: “From these sources as well as my own 12 years of consulting work, I have found that the key to great performance can be summarized in three words: thought-filled practice. That comprises executing a simulation of the actual performance while consciously observing the outcome.” Dan outlines the following “six steps of thought-filled practice:”

• Select a role for which you have passion and strengths.
• Identify the five critical aspects of that role.
• Create simulations of the actual performance that let you focus on improving one or more of the role’s critical aspects.
• Gain relevant, timely feedback on the simulated performance from a skilled observer .
• Consider the feedback and make adjustments.
• Repeat steps three to five for 10,000 hours.”

Bummer, I’m about 8,000 hours shy of becoming an expert in my field. Guess I have some work to do.