practice
it is said that if you study and practice a subject for just 15 minutes a day, every day, that you will become an expert in that subject. Lately I have become dissatisfied with my progress at the dojo, mainly because of my inability to keep attending in a regular fashion. I go for a couple of weeks, then I get hurt, or in this last case, go to the dentist, and I’m out for 2 weeks or so. I can’t progress regularly doing this.
I also recently discovered that I’ve been eating wrong - taking in calories at the wrong time of day. Typically I’ve eaten light in the morning and at lunch, then a heavier supper. But that’s too late in the day to eat the bulk of my calories. When it’s time to leave for class, I have little energy left for anything because I have eaten too few calories. Then the additional calories at night wind up around my waist because I’m not doing anything to burn them off.
So I’m changing my eating habits. I eat more fruit during the day to elevate my blood sugar, and I’m finding I have more energy during the day, and not as hungry at night. And I’m making it to class because I’m not rundown after a day at work. I’m learning how to eat to support what I want to do, and it feels good.
The next thing I’m going to change is my practice habits. Honestly, I don’t think about the art much when I’m not in the dojo, much to my detriment. I’ll be devoting more time studying and practicing, at least by myself. I hope it’s more than the 15 minutes a day I mentioned at the beginning, though it may start out at that level.
I finally came to understand something a few weeks ago, something I’d known but didn’t really understand. Not in the sense of knowing it in my bones, at the core of who I am. I finally realized that I could be world class at almost anything I choose to do. Not just good, or expert, but world class good. Absorbing information is the thing I do best, bar none. There are things I would have trouble with, like nuclear physics, or advanced chemistry, but given sufficient time I could learn just about anything I wanted to learn.
I don’t mean to sound like I’m bragging - we all have things we’re good at, some better than others. I’ve known for a while that I’m smart, and that I can do whatever I set my mind to do. What’s been lacking is the desire to become good at something and stick with it. I think I’ve finally found that desire. What I’m discovering now is that I have habits that don’t support me in achieving those desires. So the next few steps in the journey are developing the habits that will support me in getting what I want. I have all the tools I need to make the necessary changes. All that remains is to do the work.