Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers was a major success. It featured the 10,000 hour rule which has since then spread like wildfire. The rule is simple: you need to spend at least 10,000 hours doing something to become an expert.

While improvement doesn’t call for 10,000 hours, improvement requires dedication to what you want to improve at.

For example: I have been intrigued by cooking for as long as I can remember, but when I first grabbed ingredients and started cooking, was it great? Obviously not. I didn’t let that discourage me though; I kept at it and will continue to improve.

A passion for something can make spending 10,000 hours perfecting it time well spent. Senior Nahom Gaines is passionate about writing.

“I continue to improve my writing because it is my passion,” said Gaines. “It makes me happy and feel more in control when I can write about something entirely mine.”

But how do we find our passions?

“When I think about doing it in my downtime,” said Gaines. “When it’s something that brings me personal satisfaction to complete, not because I need to, but because I genuinely want to, I know I’m passionate about it.”

While Gaines spends hours working on his writing because he is passionate about it, Senior Nina Wilson spends hours on her art to earn her skill.

“I’ve improved with art not mainly because I like it like other people might” said Wilson. “I create art because I like it, but I improve because I want to feel like I earned the right to make art.”

The road to expertise might be a long journey, but I know that the process of improvement is a necessity in life and in the end we should enjoy both the journey and the end point.