Improving Through Practice

A few years back, I was privileged to stay with my Auntie who gave birth. I watched the child through various stages of development, but the most intriguing is when he started learning how to walk. It was an amazing experience. He first started with standing while holding something, then he graduated to standing alone. At some points, he would fall and then stand again. Then one day, he took his first step, even though it was very imperfect. The process kept repeating. But adorably, by the time I left there, he was already walking unaided. What started as an imperfect step improved because of practice. In life, it is what you practice that you improve on.

Improvement is not something that happens mysteriously or magically, rather it is a method. The honest truth is that you generally tend to improve on what you practise regularly. Growth does not happen by wishing for it, neither does it occur by hoping or mere planning, but it happens by repeated actions. There is no skill that you want to have that will not require you to learn through consistent actions. What you do often tends to become part of you, and you will discover that you now do them with so much ease.

I have also realised that practice also leads to competence. I once watched one of the earliest matches of one of the world's best footballers of this decade. The match was not even impressive. In fact, no one knew him back then, and he was not too good with the ball. But in just a couple of years down the line, he has perfected so much on his skills as a result of constant practising. I remember he was shared about his training routines, and how much time he spent perfecting his footballing skills. It is not surprising that he has risen to become one of the greatest footballers of this decade. It shows how perfection comes with constant practice.

Practice also has a way of building your character. This is because it also teaches you patience, gratitude, and appreciation. No one becomes exceptionally good at anything by accident, it comes from repeated actions. If you have ever seen someone with a heavily built muscle, you will understand the level of work that was done to be able to build that level of muscles. Things like daily weightlifting, exercise routines, gyming, etc. All these actions, when repeated over and again will lead to the result. In the same way in other aspects of life, perfection is not gifted, it is earned through constant practice.

Another powerful thing you need to know about practice is that it trains your mind. The brain is built in a way that it recognises patterns. When you repeatedly choose to face challenges instead of avoiding them, you will realign your mind to learn courage. When you always show up even when you do not feel like it, your mind will learn resilience. At that point, what used to feel hard will begin to feel normal. This is actually the way that ordinary people achieve extraordinary results. Not necessarily through a short burst of efforts, but through continuous and repeated actions of discipline.

Practice has a compounding effect. The small daily actions you put in may look insignificant at the moment, but over time, they will accumulate to create a very significant impact. For example, you may be reading just 3 chapters of a book daily. Before the year runs out, you will discover that you may have read more than a dozen books. Improvement is not what you do in a day, but what follows a repetitive pattern.

However, when practising, it it important to practise deliberately and intentionally. That is, practise the right thing, so that you will not become perfect in the wrong thing. You have to pay attention to what you are doing; do what you need to do, do it rightly, and then do it timely. It is not just about what you are doing that counts, but how you are doing what you are doing also counts significantly. It is when you are intentional about your actions that you will attain growth faster and better.

Thanks for reading