Sunday, March 7, 2010

Doing what we can

Oftentimes I am in class and people marvel at some of the things my body can do. To me it's nothing special but to them it seems almost like magic. Then I look at someone who has been practicing longer than I have and say precisely the same thing but to these men and women it's nothing special.

I have contemplated this for a long time and a term pops into my head just now as I commit thoughts to writing. The term is gradual gains. If we want to master Tai Chi, or music, or cooking we don't leap up one morning and become masters of any art. We have to begin with something small. A single movement, a simple set of notes, an omelet. Then we can begin to grow our knowledge. cultivate it carefully by practice and attention. Practice is repetitive. Nothing thankfully is like in the movie The Matrix where we can simply download skills to our minds. We have to work for it. We have to use our creativity and our effort to accomplish the skillfulness we desire.

Desire for skillfulness is important. Without it we do not master anything. How many wonderful talented people are just sitting around unemployed or unappreciated simply because they lack the desire for skill? We all want instant returns. The lottery win, the inheritance, the windfall, the magic pill that makes us well without effort. Sadly none of those things exist. We all have to work at it to make things happen. So... we come to the newly coined phrase gradual returns.

Anytime you practice you make a very gradual gain. You are given something new each day you put in the time to practice. The trick is to appreciate it. Appreciate the small gains and remember what one of my teachers always drilled into my skull: "The years will see what the days may never know."

So do what you can and practice everyday. It's that simple.

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