Practice makes perfect
Practising: Not just for kids
So what?
We understand. Being you is hard. That’s why you need to practice the things that are important to you. Practising allows you to:
- Execute tasks whilst using less time and effort;
- Free your mind and time to think and do other things;
- Be prepared to troubleshoot when things go wrong; and
- Listen, be aware, analyse problems and identify solutions.
What is practising?
Practising is defined as “the act of rehearsing a behaviour repeatedly, to help learn and eventually master a skill”. The two words that we want to emphasise are “repeatedly” and “master”. By repeating tasks, you become the master at those tasks. But is it as simple as that? Let’s find out.
Repetition
You learned to walk as an infant by getting up and falling down. Once you’ve repeated the practice of pulling yourself up and falling down, you practised walking by taking one step at a time. By repeating these steps, you became good at those movements and eventually learned to walk. Your life and what you do on a daily basis are like this. Until it becomes a habit, you need to deliberately repeat the process in order to master something. Once you’ve repeated something enough times to master it, it becomes part of you. Like riding a bicycle, you never forget how to do it.
Awareness
So, why do you trip and fall despite being a master at walking? It’s because you didn’t notice the crack on the sidewalk or weren’t paying attention to your steps. Awareness and consciousness are the most important skills to have in your daily practice in life. This is because you will trip and fall without them. Even after become the master at walking, you need to be aware and conscious of your actions by thinking about what you are doing. And this allows you to troubleshoot when things go wrong, analyse problems and identify solutions.
My experience
I love baking fresh bread and making coffee every morning, without fail. My bread mixture is comprised of five ingredients: yeast, wholemeal flour, white flour, salt and sugar. I know the recipe by heart. I make one flat white for my lovely wife and a double shot espresso for myself. I don’t care what bean I use as long as it’s on sale.
When I first started baking and brewing, I was slow and made mistakes. I put too much of one thing in, not enough of others and made the milk too hot or cold. After a hundredth of time, I still muck up if I’m not paying attention to what I’m doing. But, more importantly, what I realised is that I don’t enjoy doing these things if I’m mindlessly doing them. They become a chore. By being aware and conscious of baking bread and making coffee, I become present in that moment and take time to smell the coffee and freshly baked bread. And yes, that tickles my fancy no matter how many times I cross the dates on our calendar.
What now?
- Think of three things that you do mindlessly on a daily basis.
- Remember to remind yourself to be aware and conscious the next time you do those tasks.
- Be present and soak in the moment, no matter how mundane your tasks are.