Practice?

“What you have on stage is a function of what took place behind the scenes” 

– Bishop David Oyedepo.

Everyone has an opportunity to fail. Everyone has an opportunity to learn. Everyone has an opportunity to get better by each passing day. This opportunity is called practice. Honestly, practice isn’t fun. Who wants to do a monotonous activity and go over one thing repeatedly. What’s the point, can’t you just master a move in a second? Why do we have to repeat something over and over again?

Well, practice is the way to improve ourselves and become masters of what we repeat. Have you ever asked yourself how you were able to remember your name? Have you ever wondered why you could remember your ABC? Have you ever wondered why little children repeat trying to walk over and over again until they achieve it? Well in these lie great secrets. The key to mastery is this monotonous process of repetition. In our present world, this is referred to PRACTICE.

Practice is defined by the Oxford Advanced Learners dictionary as doing an activity or training regularly so that you can improve your skill. This definition speaks of being intentional. The goal of practice is to improve your skill; this means that skill is improved by repetition. I know this sounds boring, so let us make this a bit fun. The motivating factor of practice is the picture of you after your skills are improved. As you repeat an activity, your brain builds neural pathways and these pathways become stronger by each repetition. Overtime, you would discover that you would not have to think much before you do those things.

First of all, you must be intentional about your goals. No one cares about how many times you failed, no one will remember the number of mistakes you made, no one will remember you if you give up either. So you must understand that these goals are yours; not someone else’s. So you have to first of all commit yourself to your goals. Then, you have to go through the process of practice. For example, I had a goal to improve on my fitness. So I got registered with a gym; the first day of practice was hell. After workouts on the first day, I could not walk properly on my way back home. My legs could not take it; climbing up the stairs was hard work. My whole body hurt by the next day. Yet, I kept at it. Days turned to weeks, and weeks turned into months. All that kept me going were the goals that I had set for myself before joining the gym.

So, you need to be intentional about your goals. No one would be more serious with your goals than you. Do not get discouraged when you seem slow achieving your goals; it’s simply history repeating itself. Surely, other babies walked faster than you did and you failed numerous times when you attempted to walk. So, if you make mistakes during practice, do not be discouraged. Public speakers did not become as good as they are today in a few hours. Professional athletes never attained this height of success in a few days or weeks. Greatness goes through the path of repetition. Practice is not punishment; it is an opportunity to gain mastery. So, when you fail in practice, do not give up. Instead, make the necessary corrections and try again. You will notice that with time, you would soon become a master. PRACTICE is the behind the scenes exclusive of the motion picture called SUCCESS. Keep pushing yourself, keep improving. Your goals will not achieve themselves, so get to work. God has great things in store for you this year. Be diligent and consistent with your practice. 

#BeBlessed #BeInspired