No Such Thing as Tough

"There is no such thing as tough. There is trained and untrained. Now which are you?" Denzel Washington, Man on Fire Do you believe in having a hot hand? Batting streak? Lucky streak? Natural Born? Phenom? Prodigy? Turns out these don't really exist. Most are within the wide bounds of normal and others are more practiced. Picasso produced an estimated 50,000 pieces of artwork. Have we evolved in the last hundred years? Are we faster, stronger? 4 min mile is proof. No one before 1954. 1964 a high school kid did it. And the current record is nearly 17 seconds faster than Bannister. Of course, the human body has not improved. If we took a newborn baby from 500 BCE and raised it today, the baby would have the same chance at running the 4 min mile as any other modern baby born. What's the difference? The difference is knowledge. Knowledge of training techniques, nutrition, and belief that it's possible. Atul Gwande's Better is a great example of someone at the top of his game pursuing still to improve. Malcolm Gladwell made the 10,000 hour rule famous in Outliers. As he's explained, you have to be careful how the rule is applied. You must practice deliberately just outside the circle of what you find possible. Practicing what you find easy will not stretch your skills. A life worth living is a life of skills. Most skills are like swimming or parenting. You can read all you want but until you get wet or have children, you don't know anything. Selling is this way. I always smile when a selling course doesn't include practice. So what am I suggesting? I'm suggesting we agree that training is everything. We have to train the right way and we have to train our whole lives. If you slow down, you'll be left behind.