Growth and commitment require work, strenuous and consistent, to establish skill, comfort, mastery, and a sense of fulfilment.
Not until the practice is so engrained it becomes natural are we ready to claim mastery. As we grow near, the temptation to rip the rewards as soon as our progress is visible becomes natural, but going through the full cycle is necessary - it is not the pinnacle that dictates readiness, excellence is defined by the consistent search for improvement.
Taking the lead in our development requires us to know where we come from, and look towards a vision.
Walking from our roots to our dream means abandoning ourselves to the vision, and developing an astute understanding of where we fit in the endeavour, where our efforts need to go.
Getting closer to our balance, our centre, we become a juster version of ourselves, unadorned and unburdened.
Good practice is informed by masters. It learns and seeks guidance, shares experience, keeps itself accountable with the help of others.
There is no merit in reinventing the wheel. What we learn of our own accord, we would learn faster from someone who's already been there.
Learning for ourselves doesn't mean on our own, it means actively seeking improvement, growing in discipline and discernment.
We can’t be all things to everyone. We can’t excel at everything. Even if we can do each piece, we can’t do all pieces, we only have two hands and there are only 24h in a day.
Playing with others is a constraint and a freedom, it gives us the opportunity to excel at our part, to free ourselves from the rest.
Complementarity and coordination also take practice, but the rewards are infinite. As we improve our team playing skills, we don’t just add up, we multiply.
Momentum, flow, inspiration, good disposition are products of continuous practice, not a condition for the practice to start, happen or continue.
As much as it is healthy and invigorating to follow our inspiration, it is never a good idea to wait to be inspired. The feeling blocked arrives faster, invariably.
Choosing the easy way is not better than choosing the hard way, it is only us posing 'conditions' for our success, or our willingness.
The commitment to the task is the point, the way needs to match our circumstances.
Half-hearted commitment, lousy focus, and half-baked action make for poor practice.
If we are going to do something, we need to do it properly, give it our full attention, adequate time to prepare, warm up, dive in, and wrap up, we align our circumstances so that we are rested, available, present.
Giving it our whole isn’t acquired over night, it needs practice too, a practice that expands our whole and starts with showing up to the task in spite of the lack of rest of favourable omens.
What we walk towards educates us. On the way we become aware of what serves us - gets us closer to our goal, and what doesn't.
This is an endless quest. Excellence -perfect balance- is never achieved, because the continuous flow of life gives us new opportunities to refine, broaden and deepen our mastery.
Good use of that awareness involves staying true to our aim and recognising disconnect, drifting, wasted effort, and outgrown facets of our enterprise.
What we achieve is half chance. Many work equally hard for very different results.
True rewards for consistent practice are self-respect, progress, mastery, passion for our purpose. The fame, money and accolades are almost distractions, a collective hallucination that misplaces our goal.
When joy lies in showing up to the task, the rewards are not only endless, they are also inspiring, contagious, connecting.
Nearing
Approach
Taking Charge