Always with the back and forth - focus to distraction and back, organization to “fuck it do whatever” and back. My mind keeps returning to the James Clear quote about every action we take being a vote for the type of person we wish to be. If I look at my recent behavior that would mean I’m trying to become the world’s biggest consumer of TV and social media … not a skill I wish to get better at.
Only you know what it will look like to train in your art like a samurai, an Olympic athlete, a master in pursuit of excellence. Only you will know what you need to practice from morning until night, what to repeat ten thousand times.
It won’t be easy, but in that burden is also freedom and confidence.
The pleasure of the flow state. The rhythm of second nature.
The quiet calmness of knowing that, from the practice, you’ll know exactly what to do when it counts … the pride and the dependability of doing it too.
— Ryan Holiday, Discipline is Destiny
What if I just viewed my life as practice? What if everything I did was practice? The “actions are votes” thing? Those actions are practice. What I want to do is practice becoming a better
citizen
writer
musician
coder
woodworker
declutterer
home improver
reader/note-taker/learner
cook and eater
meditator
athlete
self-care specialist
parent/son/husband
focuser/deep worker
organizer
Taking this viewpoint of practicing what I wish to become puts the focus on the attempts - quality, amount of time, repetitions, etc. - and removes a focus on the non-practice time and the back and forth. In other words, more of the better stuff, don’t worry about the other things. It also removes the pressure of achieving a perfect result. Perhaps the only perfection to strive for it in the quality of the practice. It’s freeing to look at Strong99 in this sense, practicing for our whole lives: in that burden is also freedom and confidence.
What are you practicing?