Expert in a Wrong Field? (and how to get rid of a bad habit)
According to Malcolm Gladwell, it takes 10,000 hours of meaningful practice to become a world-class expert in something. It’s about 7 years of full-time deep practice (i.e. not counting the paperwork).
Let’s say that you are getting close, and you are now a leader in your field: perhaps a brilliant doctor, an engineer, a professor, an IT specialist.
Let’s say that your expertise supports you financially really well. So, does it matter if you are really, really good at something that makes your chest tighten and your stomach upset every time you think about work?
What if you are an expert in the wrong field, meaning that your work doesn’t support you emotionally, spiritually, and physically?
It is one thing to consider switching careers when you are in the very beginning of your career path: you haven’t logged in your 10,000 hours yet, you haven’t built your reputation in the field, and financially, you are not overly dependent on your expertise yet.
It’s another thing to switch careers when you already define yourself by the area of your expertise. (“I’m an investment banker. And what do you do? Nice to meet you!”)
So, what do you do if you realize that you are an expert at something that
a) doesn’t reflect you,
b) doesn’t matter to you,
c) doesn’t nurture you, or
d) all of the above?
If this is important to you, and if you want a change, here is where you can start:
1. Ask yourself: “If no one was judging me, what work would I be doing?” Start a list. Don’t edit or judge the list, just start it – on the paper, or on a dry-erase board, or on post-it notes. Place the list somewhere where you can see and edit it on regular basis. Start investing your time into those things, even if it’s 5-15 minutes here or there. By experimenting with investing your time into those dream activities, you will build a safe passage to choosing your next area of expertise. And choosing your next area of expertise, by the way, doesn’t have to imply that you must change careers – you can have a career And another area of expertise.
2. Start logging in your 10,000 hours of meaningful practice in a new field. Once you choose a new direction, don’t worry about working on it full time – just start working on it. Do you remember when your kids were babies? And now that they are off to pre-K or college, doesn’t it feel like time just flew by? Well, it happened one hour at a time. You will become an expert, one hour at a time.
3. Replace the time and effort that you spend on your current area of expertise with the time and effort you spend on your New area of expertise. As I pointed out in the post on The Expert Syndrome, ideally you continue learning new things in your current field, and continue contributing new tools to your field. However, once you understand that you are in a wrong field, you can probably get by for a while on what you already know, and instead of growing in your current field, invest your time and attention into growing in a new field.
This can also be applied to a bad habit: you may be really good doing a really bad thing because you’ve been practicing it so frequently for so long. If you are sure that you would be better off doing something else instead of your bad habit, apply the same three practices as above:
1. Think of things that you would rather be doing instead of practicing your bad habit.
2. Start investing your time into those things (which would hopefully feel better than your bad habit).
3. Replace the time that you spend on your bad habit with doing the things that you would like to do instead.
Slowly, step by step, you will see the changes in your life. You will see your expertise shifting, you will see new habits forming, and old habits fading.
Whatever you spend your time on and whatever you give your attention to will expand in your life.
So, what do you want to be an expert in? What bad habits would you like to replace? I’d love to hear what you think – please leave a comment or drop me a line.
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