Practice

   We are told from the time that we are very, very small that we need to practice whatever it is we are learning how to do.  In fact, we are told that “practice makes perfect.”    This holds true for everyone, regardless of their age or level of development.  We simply do better when we rehearse something over and over.  It helps increase our confidence and helps make us feel better about the task at hand.

   So the idea of practicing holds true with life lessons as well.  Let’s say for example, you are learning how to set healthy boundaries as it has been something you’ve struggled with for many years.  Once you make the decision that this is a new target, something that is important to you and you want to work towards, you will begin to notice all sorts of opportunities to practice.  They will just magically appear all around you.  You will be given the gift of rehearsal, almost as if there’s some magic genie that says, “Oh, you WANT to practice this? Well, here, let me help you!”

   Here’s the deal.  If there is something that you spend time talking about, like setting better boundaries, it would only make sense that you practice it if you want to get better at it.  If you spend time worrying about something, like money, it would only make sense that you practice managing it if you want to get better at it.  If you spend time thinking about how you and your partner fight all the time, it would only make sense to think about ways to more effectively communicate so that you can get better at it.  In all of these examples, you are rehearsing.  You are practicing

   Life is constantly giving us opportunities to practice whatever it is that we need to work on. Sometimes it’s stuff we don’t want to look at, even refuse to look at, and those lessons super suck.  But sometimes it’s stuff we do want to look at.  And those opportunities naturally feel like gifts.  And then, of course, there is the stuff that we don’t want to look at but we know we need to look at…yup, life gives us those lessons and those lessons are gifts too.

   The chance to practice is all around us all the time.  It is our job to look at our circumstances as the gifts that they are and to take advantage of them as opportunities to practice, as opportunities to rehearse, as opportunities to improve whatever it is we are working towards.  Because we all need practice.  And we all deserve the positive outcomes that practice brings.  You, yes YOU deserve this too!