Keep practicing (Part 2)

"In a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize...run...as to get the prize." 1 Corinthians 9:24

In a Peanuts cartoon, Charlie Brown laments to his friend Linus, "Life is just too much for me. I've been confused from the day I was born. I think the trouble is, we're thrown into life too fast. We're not really prepared." What do you want," Linus asks, "a chance to warm up first?" You may not get a chance to warm up before entering life, but you can warm up by practicing what's important to you once life has begun. It's during these warm-ups that you grow. If you commit yourself to pratice you discover: (1) Your performance can always be improved. Author Harvey Mackay says, "A good leader understands that almost anything that has been done in a particular way for a given amount of time, can be done better. Every single performance can be improved." (2) The sharpening process is better in the right environment. Improvement always requires some degree of risk and failure. So find a place where growth and experimentation are encouraged. (3) You must be willing to start with small things. When you first start to practice your gains will be small. But they will grow. In the Olympics, the difference between the gold medalist and other contestants is often just hundredths of a second. (4) There's a price to pay to reach the next level. Sidney Howard remarked, "One half of knowing what you want, is knowing what you must give up before you get it." Too many of us regard practice as an essentially negative experience, but it doesn't have to be if you think of it in terms of discovery and development. So, keep practicing.