A TO Z CHALLENGE - P FOR PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

#AtoZChallenge - 2018 and P for Practice makes Perfect.

MY A-Z CHALLENGE - P FOR PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

The next letter of my A to Zen of Life (via the Dalai Lama) is P for Practice makes Perfect. This is an oldie but a goodie because we all know that nothing happens overnight - but if you put enough effort into it, you will achieve what you set out to do.

There's no promise that you'll become a concert pianist if you practice the piano daily, or that you'll be the next JK Rowling if you sit in a coffee shop writing, or that you'll be a poet laureate if you craft poems all day......but, you'll be much better at these things than if you never put in any effort at all.


GOING FOR GOLD

We've all seen snippets of the Winter Olympics that were held recently in South Korea. None of those skiers, skaters, snowboarders, or ice hockey players got to that level of competition by sitting on the couch watching how-to videos. No, they were out there every day (in fairly horrible weather) practicing over and over again, falling and getting back up, breaking bones or tearing ligaments, but they kept going until they perfected their skill.

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." - Will Durant

MAKING CHANGES

There's lots of areas in our lives where we'd like to be better - whether it's a sport we play, a job we do, a hobby, or a project that we want to improve on. If we put in the time then the results will come. Where it gets interesting is that it doesn't even have to be something tangible, it can be a habit we want to break or a positive character trait we want to develop. 

A few months ago I took on a 30 Day No Complaining Challenge, where I consciously set out to not whinge about things. It was so ingrained into my life to complain, but it achieved very little - except make things worse for me and the people who had to listen to me. The end result of that challenge was that I finally stopped complaining about my job and the drama that was coming with it, and actually started to look at ways I could improve my situation. It turned my viewpoint around and resulted in me solving an ongoing problem I'd been dealing with for two years.

WHAT ABOUT YOU?

Do you expect results without putting in the effort needed to achieve them? Do you want to see something in your life change for the better? Maybe it's time to make a conscious effort and focus some positive action on that area where you want to see results.




#AtoZChallenge - 2018 and P for Practice makes Perfect.


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#AtoZChallenge - 2018 and I'm tackling the A to Zen of Life (via the Dalai Lama)

17 comments

  1. Hari OM
    We need constantly reminding, don't we?! It takes discipline to keep improving. Long past, when undertaking counselling studies, we naturally had to work on aspects of ourselves. One of the 'scripts' I had in my head was the word "should"... it was a mother word, a grnadmother and an aunty word. It was that one "should" always be doing something different to what was actually doing, because they said so. It had become part of my self-criticism and self-sabotage. It was imbued with the implication of guilt if one "didn't". Being in a state of constant "shoulda-coulda" had me in a hole.

    It took twenty one days to remove that word from my vocabularly and to this day, I do not apply it to myself (except in absolute context), nor in relation to others. Just one of the steps in the direction of perfection. Many still to go!
    YAM xx

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  2. Practice practice practice! I enjoy doing yoga at home, and the other day one of the teachers said "that's why it's called yoga practice."

    I found that so freeing.

    @IsaLeeWolf
    A Bit to Read

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  3. Popped over from Harvest Moon at Hand to read your A-Z post.
    Great food for thought here.
    Will be back.

    M : )
    Country Dreaming

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  4. Great reminder Leanne. Sometimes a little occasional whinge turns into constant complaining. When I read your post & your previous Perfect Job post, I realised that I've turned into a constant complainer about work. And I live with a constant complainer about his work. I think we enable each other. Maybe we should both take the no complaining challenge!

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  5. I love that you came through and mentioned ice hockey in your post ;-))) Roman sends his love.
    Great job on completing 30 days not complaining - I guess it's just a matter of making a conscious decision because we have a great life with lots to be thankful for and actually not a lot going wrong.

    https://thethreegerbers.blogspot.ch/2018/04/p-is-for-paris.html

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  6. I was intrigued to read how you found joy in your work by making a conscious decision not to complain about it. I've experienced something along the same lines myself. I find the A to Z Challenge another place where Practice makes Perfect. What took ages at the beginning of the Challenge now takes only a few minutes because its almost automatic.

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  7. This is important to remember! Sometimes I get frustrated because other people are better at my job than me--but they've all been doing it a lot longer, and every year I'm getting better!
    Melanie's Stories

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  8. I think about this so often as I go through my daily habits. I’m in a place of lamenting at times where my life has led me – – but I’m also forcing myself to acknowledge it’s the habits which have brought me here!

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  9. Hi Leanne,
    I love the idea of practice, but not so much its execution. It's not that I mind the effort. I'm used to devoting major effort to things that matter to me. It's more that practice, if not done properly, is quite useless. So when I practice something and I don't see progress right away, I start second-guessing, imagining that I'm practicing the wrong way. Some days it's tough to be me.

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  10. So true, Leanne. Without practice, not much can be accomplished. I thought the same thing watching those Olympians. Most had been practicing much of their lives, with lots of pain and hardship thrown in. So inspiring.

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  11. I know it's often debunked but the old standby of 10,000 hours to master something (from Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers) reinforces the need to practice and work towards your goals. Practice is important! Weekends In Maine

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  12. I think running the marathon taught me Leanne that you can't achieve without putting the hard yards in. I am in awe at the atheletes because I know the time they put into training. Like anything worthwhile in life you have to put the effort in. xx

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  13. I think I'm a little too much in a negative head space lately. I plan to revisit practicing gratitude. That is what has helped me get things back into perspective before. Thanks for the reminder! I had planned to do this but with my um ... mid-life ... brain had forgotten! :-) #TeamLovinLife

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  14. I'm a firm believer in practice and putting in the effort. I'm doing that these days with changing my attitudes, thoughts, and beliefs (kinda like your complaining).

    My challenge in the concept of practice is in identifying a "passion area". I'm so scared of creating "crap" that I put off trying new areas. I know it will take time and practice to be good at a creative skill and I struggle with that beginner period. Being OK with being a beginner is hard. I've managed to do it in exercise (Zumba and yoga), but not in the creative arts yet. Maybe my P needs to be persevere!

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  15. I think I need to go on the 30 day no complaining challenge. So much life and energy wasted over whinging. I am glad that your challenge resulted in such a positive outcome.

    SSG xxx

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  16. Practice. If we listen to ourselves as we practice we learn. I have learned that I will never be perfect. Wouldn't want to be. I love some of my quirks. Recently I have been learning to balance, physically, so I do not fall, trip, or hurt myself. Physical therapy is helping. Practice renoticing where all my body parts are in space might sound silly, but this practice is helping tremendously.

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  17. I am complaining less about my weight I know if I want to lose I have to put the work in. Sometimes I am willing to work on my weight and sometimes I am not and if I choose not then no reason complaining. It does take practice though not to complain.

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