in Motivation

On practicing your craft

“Practice makes perfect. After a long time of practicing, our work will become natural, skillfull, swift, and steady.” ~ Bruce Lee

Kids are often impatient when it comes to practice. That is a very natural tendency for youth. All of the kids want to come into the gym, take a basketball, and starting chucking up three-pointers as is popular today due to the rise in popularity of three-point experts on the Golden State Warriors, and other teams around the N.B.A.

I understand it. To some extent I think I might even like it. Some interest in the game is better than no interest at all. I definitely understand that shooting us fun and that all nightly highlights are of scoring opportunities. But what about the boring aspects of not only basketball, but any other interest? Hundreds and hundreds of hours necessary are necessary to achieve even a modicum of improvement in not only dribbling a basketball, but also in ballet, driving a truck, etc. What about the daunting task to put in the 10,000 hours that are necessary in order to become an expert?

Who voluntarily subjects themselves  to this kind of torture of their own will?

Sadly not many will make the sacrifice in order to practice their craft. If there is a a sickness that pervades mankind then is is certainly the malady whose symptom’s are self-loathing and lethargy. Simply put, people do not love themselves enough in order to put in the work necessary work that is requisite in order for one to achieve one’s true potential.

But what about those individuals that put in the hours, the sweat, the blood, the sacrifice, all in the name of achievement of a goal? Those are the individuals whom we call super-stars, experts, visionaries, or any other title of reverence that we chose to use.

Which one will you be? Will you chose short-term pleasure over the long-term benefits?