The Power of Practice
The endless opportunities you have to get better
Practice. It’s something we all understand, right? You practice at something and you (usually) get better at it, be it a sport, an artistic pursuit or writing a good opening joke in an email newsletter. You block out hours and hours, often 25 hours a day if some of the hardcore, workaholic halfwits on social media are to be believed, to pour your own blood, sweat and tears into improving your skill of choice.
But what’s missing here? (besides you not having the ability to defy the laws of time and space to wedge in an extra hour in your day).
Part of the problem, I’ve realised recently, is that our scope for what can be defined as practice is very limited, which in and of itself is very limiting. The opportunity for practice is everywhere, everyday. And if you really want grow and get better and kick life in its proverbial nutsack, it’s these opportunities that you can’t afford to miss.
This idea was perfectly summarised into two simple rules by James Clear (the author of Atomic Habits) in one of his recent newsletters. Basically, he wrote something like this:
The things that you practice on a regular basis are what you get better at
EVERYTHING is practice.
For me, this idea, so perfectly and succinctly written, provided me with a real lightbulb moment. Because it made me realise that every choice matters and, on the flip side, the power that every choice has as well to either define or ruin your day (or even your life). The actions that you choose, or don’t choose, to do each day are practice for something larger.
Think about it like this:
If you choose to sit the snooze button every morning when your alarm goes off, what are you practicing?
If you allow yourself to think “oh well my diet’s ruined today, might as well stuff 10 whole pizzas into my face and start again tomorrow”, what are you practicing?
If you dive for your phone every time it makes a f*****g noise rather than stay focused on working or spending time you your kids, what are you practicing?
If you go into a Thanos like rage and snap your fingers every time someone does something unbelievably stupid to you in traffic rather than taking a moment to settle the f*** down …you get the idea.
Every moment and everything you do can be practice. Every action, every thought, everything is an opportunity to practice something, to get better at something.
Whatever your desired outcome is, the daily choices you are faced with are one of the superpowers you can use to get there.
So, the question remains: what is it that you are going to be practicing today?