How much practice before you become great at something? 10,000 hours, said Malcolm Gladwell. Or rather, said psychologists who studied super high level musicians, as reported by Malcolm Gladwell. The idea that 10,000 hours of practice = expertise wormed its way into our collective psyche immediately after Gladwell presented it in Outliers: The Story of Success. The book was a huge bestseller, and we all now know that the most important determinant of success is dedicated, deliberate practice.
Except it’s not. Gladwell’s thesis has taken a beating by researchers who point out that the 10,000 hour rule fails to take into account studies showing practice is important, but so are genetics, starting age, and lots of other things. In fact, the latest meta-analysis makes a strong case that the whole 10,000 hour thing is just way overblown, with hours heaped upon hours of deliberate practice accounting for only about 20% of the variance in performance for sports and music, and less than 1% for professional performance.
I bring this up because QF92 is designed to help us get better at doing things on the regular. Things like coming out every Tuesday and Saturday, and doing the daily challenges. For all of us, but especially for queerfitters who do not naturally tend towards doing things on the regular, we are practicing the practice of practicing.
How’s THAT for meta- meta-?
QF92 is all about practice, but we are certainly not trying to practice 10,000 hours of any one skill. There’s not enough time, for one, but for two, it’s not what we’re about. We are not trying to become expert push-uppers, or supreme expert squatters. Who, after all, wants to spend 10,000 hours practicing to become great at exercising? Oh, right, many in the world of CrossFit do, but that’s a whole other kind of queer.
Anyway, I started this overly long post on practice because I reread today Moving Toward the Ugly: A Politic Beyond Desirability, a speech given by my friend and master Catan player Mia MIngus. At the Femmes of Color conference, Mia asked:
What if we let go of being beautiful, stopped chasing “pretty,” stopped sucking in and shrinking and spending enormous amounts of money and time on things that don’t make us magnificent?
Aha! That’s what we’re practicing at QF92…we’re practicing magnificence. How great is that?!
Good thing the science guys have figured out we don’t need 10,000 hours of practicing magnificence to become magnificent, because we don’t have 10,000 hours left in QF92. We have 30 days left and we’re going to make every one of them magnificent.
The Thursday challenge:
Take 7 minutes to read Mia.
If you have a to do list, write on top of it: BE MAGNIFICENT TODAY. Then,
15 overhead squats with a broomstick (or if you can get to a bar, 65 pounds)
10 pushups, one step up from your usual
5 lunges each leg
1 minute writing down how to make yourself more magnificent
Repeat 5 times, including the 1 minute of jotting/writing.
Share something about your magnificence in the comments. We want to know.
11 responses to “Thur. – 3/12 Practicing Magnificence”
Dean_La_Soul
March 12th, 2015 at 08:45
I am magnificient, even as I struggle to complete my last push-up, chest muscles exploding, arms trembling, and my body in a sweat.
I am magnificient by existing as a product of the blue-black universe.
Anushka
March 12th, 2015 at 10:57
Done
eunicehcho
March 12th, 2015 at 20:20
done. Mia’s talk was really beautiful.
“Your true self is always shining and free”–zen master seung sahn
msullivan574
March 12th, 2015 at 21:11
Done!
I am grateful for this opportunity to reflect. I have been struggling with writing my dissertation. With trying to make it sexy and cutting edge. But also with feeling disconnected (or more just distant from) from the politics and passion that brought me to this work. Mia’s talked (and rallying in Decatur last night with a number of queerfitters as well as a helpful friend who talked it through with me) has reminded me this is all a part of the process to get me where I love to be which is in the classroom, working with students, etc etc! So today I am thinking about being a magnificent teacher.
Chris
March 12th, 2015 at 21:43
Done!
Thank you for sharing Mia’s talk. Today’s prompt spoke to me. I also realized the difference I experience in a minute of writing versus push-ups. In the first I’m like, “wow how could that be a minute I only wrote one sentence,” and in the second I’m like “I swear a minute passed two minutes ago.”
More magnificence of me:
-cultivate and embrace my truth, though other needs may contradict it
-love awarely and fully
-being brave with this shit
-being more humble and empathetic with all my fellow people
-nurturing my inner child
-holding all the magnificence i pass through: this Earth, generations of my family and communities, teachers, my generation, mentees, neighbors, comrades, movement, pain, rebirth, liberation
-all the magnificence of the moment-the infinity of carrying this with me
Monica
March 12th, 2015 at 22:19
Done! My first minute of journalling was all about all the synonyms for magnificent and me fighting against trying to make myself small.
Cindy Lutenbacher
March 12th, 2015 at 22:24
Yeah. Pushups, Situps, Overhead presses, PT, and biking to make groceries.
Have posted Mia’s magnificent speech to my FB. Damn. Just damn. Thank you, Kung Li. And thank you, Mia.
More magnificence:
1. Listen.
2. Be with Qfitters more.
3. Listen.
4. Do more pushups on the shed roof. Preferably during a rainstorm.
5. Listen.
6. Speak.
Roan
March 12th, 2015 at 22:33
Loved this workout, and this blog post, and everything Mia wrote. This is why I love queerfit.
“Our stories are tools for liberation.”
efiada77
March 12th, 2015 at 23:49
Done! Didn’t get a chance to read Mia during the day, but I will now that I’m off work. I have an pretty good idea what kind of brilliance awaits me. Did some shallow pushups from one-legged planks for the first time in my life! Also did one set of reverse pushups…or something. lol I will nurture my magnificent self by continuing to work at being: authentic ALL the time; deliberate about getting my spiritual/sexual needs met (real talk); honest about when I need to set new professional goals; a better sister, daughter, aunt, friend, cousin; and moving past my PAST so I can move all the way FORWARD.
Daniel
March 12th, 2015 at 23:50
Done!
Cecilia
March 13th, 2015 at 00:11
Done! One small glimpse into my magnificent reflections – “…asking myself the difficult questions, and embracing what might be the ugly truth.”