On Practicing Life
We enjoy talented performers performing way above our ability to comprehend how good they are.
It’s the same with magicians defying all logic to pull off the impossible. Their feats will even at times continue to entertain us, sometimes for a lifetime, as we share with others what it was we witnessed.
And it’s good and healthy to see performances at the highest level of mastery. It opens our minds to wonder and even for a few to chart their own paths to achieve lofty goals in these same arenas.
But what seems to us impossible is, to the athlete or performer, a lifetime of practice, repetition, and work routines most have trouble imagining more than the final amazing performances themselves.
Certainly there is a gifting of talent not developed by the individual, but this is the seed. But all seeds must then be planted by parents and others we respect and trust into good soil, which is the opportunity to practice. Some call this the work ethic. And this practicing process must then continue, like a farmer tending his crop tirelessly, until harvest time arrives.
Now if you take my description (as most usually will) to being about developing a particular set of performance skills, which may one day place you on world class stages or fields of competition at the nosebleed level, thus securing your livelihood possibly for life, then I think you are aiming too low. I expect many to laugh at this because they were, for themselves, considering this to be beyond their grasp, so how can I be saying it’s too low a mark to aim at?
Because it isn’t about developing a set of particular skills. It is about viewing the entire span of one’s life. It is to see everyday living within the context, not of achieving something as some end goal, but of practicing. You know as well as I many famous individuals rich with talents who self-destructed before our eyes.
Practicing is a way of life. It is applying this principle to everything, including personal character growth as well as relational skills with God and man. It involves improving our quiet times and seeking to grow intellectually. It is constantly reviewing our own behavior and putting ourselves in situations that offer challenges and experiences that, over time, refine and polish us to be more relaxed and confident in situations that earlier would have terrified us.
Proper practice builds confidence and ultimately in life can position us to do things beyond our earlier greatest hopes and dreams. Quiet practice of daily life activities over time refines what others may eventually come to witness as some of the most impactful actions they have ever experienced coming from another mortal.
Finally, if this life is a practice session, then perhaps it all is to prepare us for what comes next after this one is over. If you believe this then there is even something to learn should we live well past 110.
Keep coming back. It works if you work it.
At 103 a friend always said the best was yet to come.