I just finished reading the book "The Art of Learning" by Josh Waitzkins, a former chess master turned martial arts champion.
The main point I got out of this book is taking the long road when it comes to mastering a skill. It models many the 10,000-hour rule, with focused and long-term work to become great at something. When it came to chess, he had an innate ability to play it, but just having that wasn't enough to go up against people who've played for years. So he had to realize that to build that skill, it needed time and intentional learning.
It becomes an art in and of itself, learning, waiting, practicing, slowly but surely increasing that skill to a master level. When he became a Tai Chi world champion, he had an exciting experience that really caught my attention. In the dojo where he trained, another student was there whose skill was years above his own, and this guy was especially aggressive. He wouldn't stop when you tapped out, but wait until you slammed into the floor.
Josh saw this as an opportunity to learn and intentionally went to this guy every time for months, getting tossed around every time. But through this process, he started seeing things that he formerly didn't catch. He described it as a feeling of moving in slow motion. Shortly after this, he started beating this student; he found the weaknesses, figured out the tricks, and used them against him. The student eventually stopped wanting to spar with him as he would keep losing.
This story really illustrates two amazing things in my mind. One that to master something that you've never done before, or that's taken others years to perform if you intentionally seek out that learning opportunity. And the second is, the other student missed out on huge growth; he could have stepped up his game and gotten better. But he decided to give up and didn't want to spend the effort to take things to the next level.