As I am writing this, we are almost ready to head into the Memorial Day weekend. Wow! Summer is almost upon us. I hope you are as excited about it as I am. I love summertime and all the fun things that go with it like spending time up at the lake, water skiing, biking, camping and golfing.
Speaking of golf, I started to play this game a few years ago, but am definitely still a beginner. Golf is a tough sport, so I need all the help I can get. I know they say that “practice makes perfect,” but I am starting to wonder, especially with all of those hazards, not to mention the water and then there’s the putting. Good grief! It’s amazing how fast your score can go downhill when you get to the green, well at least that is the case for me.
Matthew Kelly, in his great book, Perfectly Yourself 9 Lessons for Enduring Happiness, has a unique perspective on practice, that I found interesting, and wanted to share. Kelly tells a story about taking piano lessons as a child, and says, “I now know that practice doesn’t make perfect. Practice makes progress. And practice makes progress only if you practice the right thing in the right way.”¹ Isn’t that the truth? I am sure many of you can relate to this. Maybe you can recall similar experiences as a child, or can rattle them off from adult experiences, either way…we all have them. Whether following procedures at work, adhering to a diet or an exercise program to lose a few pounds, or giving a speech or presentation, things can happen that throw us off track, create an embarrassing moment or cause some sort of set-back. While you may want to throw in the towel and give up, it is important to keep trying. In fact, Tal Ben-Shahar, in his book, The Pursuit Of Perfect, tells us, “It is only from the experience of challenging ourselves that we learn and grow, and we often develop and mature much more from our failures than from our successes.”² Make sure you remember this when you beat yourself up. I am making a mental note.
We all can get frustrated when we are not seeing the results we want, or something isn’t going our way, but it is important to push through the feeling and keep going. Many people are eager to try the latest diet to lose weight. While they may start out strong, some individuals get frustrated when they reach a plateau or give in to some craving and then decide to just give up altogether. Kelly tells us however that, “the reason most of us fail to achieve real and sustainable change in our lives is because we focus too much on the desired outcome and not enough on the progress we are making.3 Does this sound familiar? What about those 7 pounds you already lost?
So dust yourself off and get back on that bike and try again. Kelly tells us to “just do the next right thing,”4 which happens to be his second lesson for enduring happiness. It is action that leads us to progress, and failure is just part of the process, so keep on practicing.
How is your progress going?
Thanks for reading!
Barb
Source:
¹ Kelly Matthew. “Perfectly Yourself. 9 Lessons for Enduring Happiness.” Ballantine Books. New York. Copyright 2006. Beacon Publishing. pg. 12.
² Brian Johnson’s Philosophers Notes. The Pursuit of Perfect. http://brianjohnson.me/wp-content/uploads/
The-Pursuit-of-Perfect.pdf pg. 2
3Kelly Matthew. “Perfectly Yourself. 9 Lessons for Enduring Happiness.” Ballantine Books. New York. Copyright 2006. Beacon Publishing. pg. 6
4 Kelly Matthew. “Perfectly Yourself. 9 Lessons for Enduring Happiness.” Ballantine Books. New York. Copyright 2006. Beacon Publishing. pg. 53
