The 10,000-Hour Rule says that you need approximately 10,000 hours of practice to become a world-class expert in a field. There is no other way: if you want to be a world-class expert in your field, you must do your 10,000 hours of practice.
Then, where should you invest my 10,000 hours of practice?
This question is important because 10,000 hours is a lot of time. If you consistently practice 4 hours a day for 6 days a week, you will still need 8 years to get 10,000 hours. So answering this question is essential. If you need to invest such a huge amount of time, you’d better do it right. You’d better find your niche.
To find your niche, I find the three questions below helpful. Answer them and you will have an idea of where you should go. Here they are:
1. Where have you invested your time?
One way to know where to invest your time is simply to look at where you have invested your time. For example, in the last few years you might have learned how to play music for one or two hours a day. Or you might have blogged about a certain topic. Or you might have spent a lot of time on gardening.
Those are good signs of where you should invest your 10,000 hours. You already invest part of that 10,000 hours so you only need to invest the rest. The difference is now you do it consciously and deliberately. You will be more effective that way.
2. What are your passions?
In fact, that’s one reason why 10,000 hours is a magic number to become a world-class expert: almost everyone else fails before reaching that point. Only a few people can reach the 10,000 hours mark and that’s why they become world class.
To help you reach the 10,000 hours mark, doing something you love is really helpful. It will help you go through difficult times. It will help you overcome boredom. Without it, the 10,000 hours will feel like a painful journey. It’s highly unlikely that you will ever reach the 10,000 hours mark that way。
3. What opportunities does the age give you?
Ask yourself: what opportunities does your birth date give you? What opportunities does the history give you at this point in time?
Answering these questions is not easy because it’s difficult to see whether or not something will be hot. When Bill Gates did his 10,000 hours of practice to learn programming, he might not know that it would eventually put him in a perfect position to be a software mogul. You need to have faith in something and believe that the dots will eventually connect.（英语散文 www.lyy5.com）
翻译：
一万小时天才理论说的是：要想成为这一领域的世界级专家，你就需要花大约一万个小时来练习。没有其他的法子，如果你想成功，那就必须得花一万个小时。
那么，你应该把这一万个小时花在哪里呢？
这个问题很重要，因为一万个小时是很长的一段时间。如果你每天练习4小时，每周练习6天，那么你需要8年的时间才能达到一万个小时的练习量。所以回答“要把一万个小时花在哪”的这个问题就变得非常有必要了。你要付出这么多的时间，你就必须选好方向，选择最合适的方向。
为了能找到最合适的方向，我提出了下面的三个问题，如果能回答出来这些问题，你就能找到你的方向了。问题如下：
你过去都把时间花在了哪里？
要想知道该在哪个方面花时间的最简单的办法就是回头看看自己已经在哪个领域花了时间。比如说，在过去的几年里，你每天都会花一两个小时来演奏音乐，或者在某个问题上持续地发表文章，又或者在园艺上花费了大量的时间。
这些都能很好地说明你应该在哪些方面来利用这一万个小时的时间。你已经花了一部分时间了，那么你只需要把一万个小时中剩下的那部分时间花上去就可以了。区别在于现在你是有意识地、特意地把时间用在某个领域上，而收效也会更好。
你最感兴趣的是什么？
事实上，兴趣就是一万个小时天才理论的奥妙之处，因为很多人都在达到这个数量级之前就放弃了。只有一小部分人可以坚持一万个小时，而他们就成了世界级的高手。
为了让自己能坚持一万个小时，做自己感兴趣的事是非常重要的。它可以帮助你渡过难关，战胜无聊。如果是自己不感兴趣的东西的话，那么要坚持一万个小时简直就是一段痛苦不堪的长途跋涉啊，很有可能你在到达终点前就已经放弃了。
你所处的时代赋予了你什么？
问问自己：你出生的那个时代给你带来了什么机会？现在的社会环境又给你创造了什么机遇？
要回答这个问题并不容易因为没有人可以预见未来，知道什么东西会在将来火起来。当比尔-盖茨把他的一万个小时用于学习编程的时候，他可能也不知道最终自己会因此而成为软件业巨头。你需要对自己选择的方向有信心，要相信最终这些小的点都会连成线。
