Apparently, my husband is very good at golf. I hear about it often. I have known him for over 35 years and he has always been good. He practices a lot, he always has. He also still takes lessons. I think, “Don’t you know how to do it by now?”. But it seems that you are never done learning it. Weird. He takes lessons so that he knows that what he is practicing is what he really wants to be doing. Interesting.
My coach and teacher, Brooke Castillo recently did a podcast called “Butterflies Walking”. She observed this on her walk and went on to make the point that the butterfly was not getting any better at flying by walking around. Fascinating.
For many years I was a personal trainer and I had clients who were grandmothers. They wanted to know what exercises to do so they could always be able to get up and down off the floor with their grandkids. They asked if they should be doing leg presses or biceps curls, and I always explained to them the best exercise to keep them strong enough to get on and off the floor was to get on and off the floor every day.
Have I lost you yet?
Practice what you want to be good at.
What are you practicing?
Are you practicing eating when you are not hungry? Or eating whatever is in front of you without thought? Or drinking a little too much?
Or…
Are you practicing saying no when the cookies come out? Or sometimes declining a drink when offered? Or skipping the random, unnecessary snack.
These actions are practice until they are second nature to you. That is when all of the practice pays off. When you don’t even have to think about the actions that get you the results you want.
Again, practice what you want to be good at.
