In my experience being around top medical students, a field notorious for its immense learning curve and volume of content, one of the key ingredients for excellence is consistent practice.

Top students tend to study, hone their physical exam skills and speak to patients throughout the year rather than right before an assessment. Every day they are improving, 1% at a time, and over the span of years this leads to amazing results.

Other factors influence excellence, no doubt: one’s socioeconomic status, level of human supports, studying techniques and more will shift the playing zone. However once a certain level of stability has been reached, the distance between action and results seems to shrink with effort and consistency.

This trend might not be limited to learning, but extend to other domains also, as Malcolm Gladwell writes in Outliers:

Their research suggests that once a musician has enough ability to get into a top music school, the thing that distinguishes one performer from another is how hard he or she works. That’s it.

Related: The Mundanity of Excellence.