--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: What you want—really, deeply want—is…" description: "\"“What you want—really, deeply want—is fundamental because deliberate practice is a heavy investment.”\" — Geoff Colvin" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/55a/geoff-colvin-43142_deliberate-practice_what-you-want-really-deeply-want-is-fund_3032954.jpg" --- # What you want—really, deeply want—is fundamental because… ![“What you want—really, deeply want—is fundamental because deliberate practice is a heavy investment.” quote by Geoff Colvin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/55a/geoff-colvin-43142_deliberate-practice_what-you-want-really-deeply-want-is-fund_3032954.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/55a/geoff-colvin-43142_deliberate-practice_what-you-want-really-deeply-want-is-fund_3032954.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/55a/geoff-colvin-43142_deliberate-practice_what-you-want-really-deeply-want-is-fund_3032954.jpg) > ““What you want—really, deeply want—is fundamental because deliberate practice is a heavy investment.”” [Geoff Colvin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/geoff-colvin/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Deliberate practice is essential, but its value depends on deep personal desire to invest effort. **In simple terms:** Deep desire makes heavy practice worth it. Key Takeaway Align goals with true passion. Themes motivation practice skill development Mood determined reflective Type advice motivational When to use this quote - learning a new instrument - athletic training - career advancement - artistic mastery Key Concepts Deliberate practice intrinsic motivation investment Questions to Reflect On - What truly drives you to practice? - How can you deepen your commitment? A Different Perspective If desire is shallow, effort may feel futile. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Deliberate practice](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/deliberate-practice/) [Investing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/investing/) ## Related quotes > [In fact, it's in my interest to love digital recording, and I just spent a ton on a new digital recording system, so I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-vanderslice/in-fact-it-s-in-my-interest-to-love-digital-recording-and-i-just/) [John Vanderslice](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-vanderslice/) > [The economy is best revived through heavy investment in infrastructure.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/raila-odinga/the-economy-is-best-revived-through-heavy-investment-in-infrastructure/) [Raila Odinga](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/raila-odinga/) > [We deeply want to be led by people who know what they're doing and who don't have to think about it too much.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/daniel-kahneman/we-deeply-want-to-be-led-by-people-who-know-what-they-re-doing-and/) [Daniel Kahneman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/daniel-kahneman/) > [“I want to talk to everybody I can as deeply as I can. 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All we have to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jack-canfield/when-you-scratch-the-surface-every-one-of-us-has-something-that-we/) [Jack Canfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jack-canfield/) > [“deliberate practice requires that one identify certain sharply defined elements of performance that need to be improved, and then work intently on them.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/geoff-colvin/deliberate-practice-requires-that-one-identify-certain-sharply/) [Geoff Colvin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/geoff-colvin/) > [What determines how much time and deliberate practice a child is willing to devote to achievement? Nothing less than her character.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/martin-seligman/what-determines-how-much-time-and-deliberate-practice-a-child-is/) [Martin Seligman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/martin-seligman/) > [“deliberate practice” to describe this style of serious study, defining it formally as an “activity designed, typically by a teacher, for the sole purpose…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/cal-newport/deliberate-practice-to-describe-this-style-of-serious-study-defining/) [Cal Newport](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/cal-newport/) > [“When you adopt a productivity mindset, however, deliberate practice-inducing tasks are often sidestepped, as the ambiguous path toward their completion, when combined with the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/when-you-adopt-a-productivity-mindset-however-deliberate-practice/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“Here’s the routine: Once a week I require myself to summarize in my “bible” a paper I think might be relevant to my research.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/cal-newport/here-s-the-routine-once-a-week-i-require-myself-to-summarize-in-my/) [Cal Newport](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/cal-newport/) > [“if it’s rare and valuable, it’s not easy to get. This insight brought me into the world of performance science, where I encountered the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/cal-newport/if-it-s-rare-and-valuable-it-s-not-easy-to-get-this-insight-brought/) [Cal Newport](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/cal-newport/) > [“Another deliberate-practice routine was the introduction of my hour tally—a sheet of paper I mounted behind my desk at MIT, and plan on remounting…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/another-deliberate-practice-routine-was-the-introduction-of-my-hour/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“But exceptional performance depends not only on the groundwork we lay through Deliberate Practice; it also requires the right working conditions. And in contemporary…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-cain/but-exceptional-performance-depends-not-only-on-the-groundwork-we-lay/) [Susan Cain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-cain/) > [The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance”: “The differences between expert performers and normal adults are not immutable, that is,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/k-anders-ericsson/the-role-of-deliberate-practice-in-the-acquisition-of-expert/) K. Anders Ericsson ## More by Geoff Colvin > [“deliberate practice requires that one identify certain sharply defined elements of performance that need to be improved, and then work intently on them.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/geoff-colvin/deliberate-practice-requires-that-one-identify-certain-sharply/) [Geoff Colvin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/geoff-colvin/) > [“Mozart’s earliest symphonies, brief works written when he was just eight, hew closely to the style of Johann Christian Bach, with whom he was…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/geoff-colvin/mozart-s-earliest-symphonies-brief-works-written-when-he-was-just/) [Geoff Colvin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/geoff-colvin/) > [“When Tchaikovsky finished writing his Violin Concerto in 1878, he asked the famous violinist Leopold Auer to give the premier performance. Auer studied the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/geoff-colvin/when-tchaikovsky-finished-writing-his-violin-concerto-in-1878-he/) [Geoff Colvin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/geoff-colvin/) > [“If you set a goal of becoming an expert in your business, you would immediately start doing all kinds of things you don't do…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/geoff-colvin/if-you-set-a-goal-of-becoming-an-expert-in-your-business-you-would/) [Geoff Colvin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/geoff-colvin/) > [“until the late twentieth century—the scarce resource in business was financial capital. If you had it, you had the means to create more wealth,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/geoff-colvin/until-the-late-twentieth-century-the-scarce-resource-in-business-was/) [Geoff Colvin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/geoff-colvin/) > [“if customer ignorance is a profit center for you, you’re in trouble.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/geoff-colvin/if-customer-ignorance-is-a-profit-center-for-you-you-re-in-trouble/) [Geoff Colvin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/geoff-colvin/) > [“The scarce resource is no longer money. It’s human ability.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/geoff-colvin/the-scarce-resource-is-no-longer-money-it-s-human-ability/) [Geoff Colvin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/geoff-colvin/) > [“Ambitious parents who are currently playing the ‘Baby Mozart’ video for their toddlers may be disappointed to learn that Mozart became Mozart by working…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/geoff-colvin/ambitious-parents-who-are-currently-playing-the-baby-mozart-video-for/) [Geoff Colvin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/geoff-colvin/) [Explore all 9 Geoff Colvin quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/geoff-colvin/) ## More Deliberate practice quotes > [The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance”: “The differences between expert performers and normal adults are not immutable, that is,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/k-anders-ericsson/the-role-of-deliberate-practice-in-the-acquisition-of-expert/) K. Anders Ericsson > [“But exceptional performance depends not only on the groundwork we lay through Deliberate Practice; it also requires the right working conditions. And in contemporary…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-cain/but-exceptional-performance-depends-not-only-on-the-groundwork-we-lay/) [Susan Cain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-cain/) > [“deliberate practice requires that one identify certain sharply defined elements of performance that need to be improved, and then work intently on them.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/geoff-colvin/deliberate-practice-requires-that-one-identify-certain-sharply/) [Geoff Colvin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/geoff-colvin/) > [“Another deliberate-practice routine was the introduction of my hour tally—a sheet of paper I mounted behind my desk at MIT, and plan on remounting…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/another-deliberate-practice-routine-was-the-introduction-of-my-hour/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“if it’s rare and valuable, it’s not easy to get. This insight brought me into the world of performance science, where I encountered the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/cal-newport/if-it-s-rare-and-valuable-it-s-not-easy-to-get-this-insight-brought/) [Cal Newport](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/cal-newport/) > [“Here’s the routine: Once a week I require myself to summarize in my “bible” a paper I think might be relevant to my research.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/cal-newport/here-s-the-routine-once-a-week-i-require-myself-to-summarize-in-my/) [Cal Newport](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/cal-newport/) > [“When you adopt a productivity mindset, however, deliberate practice-inducing tasks are often sidestepped, as the ambiguous path toward their completion, when combined with the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/when-you-adopt-a-productivity-mindset-however-deliberate-practice/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“deliberate practice” to describe this style of serious study, defining it formally as an “activity designed, typically by a teacher, for the sole purpose…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/cal-newport/deliberate-practice-to-describe-this-style-of-serious-study-defining/) [Cal Newport](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/cal-newport/) > [What determines how much time and deliberate practice a child is willing to devote to achievement? Nothing less than her character.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/martin-seligman/what-determines-how-much-time-and-deliberate-practice-a-child-is/) [Martin Seligman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/martin-seligman/) > [“craft-centric.” Getting better and better at what I did became what mattered most, and getting better required the strain of deliberate practice. This is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/cal-newport/craft-centric-getting-better-and-better-at-what-i-did-became-what/) [Cal Newport](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/cal-newport/) > [“Malcolm Gladwell showed us in Outliers, research led by psychologist Anders Ericsson reveals that attaining expertise in a domain typically requires ten thousand hours…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/adam-m-grant/malcolm-gladwell-showed-us-in-outliers-research-led-by-psychologist/) [Adam M. Grant](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/adam-m-grant/) > [“Even supermotivated people who’re working to exhaustion may not be doing deliberate practice. For instance, when a Japanese rowing team invited Olympic gold medalist…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/angela-duckworth/even-supermotivated-people-who-re-working-to-exhaustion-may-not-be/) [Angela Duckworth](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/angela-duckworth/) > [“people who climb to the top of just about any field eclipse their peers through something as basic as deliberate practice.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-grenny/people-who-climb-to-the-top-of-just-about-any-field-eclipse-their/) [Joseph Grenny](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-grenny/) > [“Ericsson says that it takes approximately ten thousand hours of Deliberate Practice to gain true expertise, so it helps to start young.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-cain/ericsson-says-that-it-takes-approximately-ten-thousand-hours-of/) [Susan Cain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-cain/) > [“Deliberate Practice, which he has identified as the key to exceptional achievement. When you practice deliberately, you identify the tasks or knowledge that are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-cain/deliberate-practice-which-he-has-identified-as-the-key-to-exceptional/) [Susan Cain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-cain/) [Browse all 45 Deliberate practice quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/deliberate-practice/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“What you want—really, deeply want—is fundamental because deliberate practice is a heavy investment.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Geoff Colvin" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/geoff-colvin/what-you-want-really-deeply-want-is-fundamental-because-deliberate/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Deliberate practice" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/geoff-colvin/what-you-want-really-deeply-want-is-fundamental-because-deliberate/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/55a/geoff-colvin-43142_deliberate-practice_what-you-want-really-deeply-want-is-fund_3032954.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/55a/geoff-colvin-43142_deliberate-practice_what-you-want-really-deeply-want-is-fund_3032954.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/55a/geoff-colvin-43142_deliberate-practice_what-you-want-really-deeply-want-is-fund_3032954.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“What you want—really, deeply want—is fundamental because deliberate practice is a heavy investment.” — Geoff Colvin", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Geoff Colvin", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/geoff-colvin/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“What you want—really, deeply want—is fundamental...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/geoff-colvin/what-you-want-really-deeply-want-is-fundamental-because-deliberate/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/geoff-colvin/what-you-want-really-deeply-want-is-fundamental-because-deliberate/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```