The greatest master at anything started early in life. Sure, it is possible to become a master after you have started something later on in life, but many types of talents cannot really reach the level of being a master at it unless they are discovered and developed early in their lives.
Usually we are talking about people with some sort of skill set at what they do. Piano, Violin, Dancing, Acting, Drawing or sports like golf, basketball or tennis. It is possible to become very good at something if you start later in life, but it is unlikely you will ever reach the level of a true master of it.
Probably the best example of this was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart whose skills at the piano were displayed early and his ability to compose became well known all over Europe. But, there are also sports figures who have displayed an uncanny facility that set them off from the others who played their games. Tiger Woods and Stephen Curry come to my mind as children who found their talent early and never wavered in their pursuit of excellence.
But, it isn’t only about becoming a superstar, it is more about developing a second nature with skills that you will possess for a lifetime.
The things you learn early in life you will keep until late in life. It makes it possible for people to participate in life with skills that most people would be envious of, if they even ever dared to or thought of doing it in the first place.
The most basic skill to learn in early life is to always focus on mastery.
It has been a long time since I was in school, but my memory of it is that there was no emphasis placed on mastering the material. All that I knew of was going to school, taking tests and getting a grade. It didn’t really matter what grade you got as long as it was a C or above. Satisfactory is a term that seems to be the word they used.
Part of the problem was that you were never quite sure what it was you were responsible for knowing so you could prepare yourself for the test. It was always ambiguous.
When you are unsure about what it is you are actually supposed to learn, it is very difficult to work towards studying for it. It was always almost like they wanted you to deduce what was important and what wasn’t important and to a kid, none of it is important.
Children are fair minded. They understand that they are supposed to perform well. They want to. But it seems like education is presented in such a way as to separate the kids into categories and not to ensure that all of the kids actually learn the material.
So, starting early in a child’s education it should be practiced that they are presented the information they are required to know clearly so they know what it is they need to prepare for.
When you prepare for a performance, you know what you are preparing for. You have to know that you can play a piece in practice, before you can perform it in public. Should education also not reflect that maxim? Shouldn’t tests be given as a way to prepare for tests and not as a way to give grades?
So, early in a child’s life, the defining of talent is so important and the preparation for performance should always be the focus, because we don’t need a society of guessers, we want to build a society of knowers.
Every music lesson I ever had was a test. It was a test to see what I knew, what I could do. When the performance got there, I knew I could do it. In the education of music performance it isn’t to be graded on how good some one is at it subjectively, but rather did they get the notes right, did they remember all of the words and pronounce them correctly, all of these things are measurable.
Start early, be clear about what you are teaching and give the children a chance to excel every day and be honest about their progress. You don’t have to win championships to be a winner, but you do have to win every day to be one.