My brother Jim lives in California and is an avid surfer. He\u2019s also 62 years old. One day we were talking on the phone and he said,\u00a0 \u201cI was driving to the beach yesterday morning and it was still dark. I was thinking, \u2018Why am I doing this?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re doing it so you can have a lively old age,\u201d I suggested.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He laughed and said, \u201cYou know I surf\u00a0 better now than I did thirty years ago.\u201d I pointed out that he\u2019d also been disciplined about keeping at it. \u201cI still love it,\u201d he said, then added, \u201cYou\u2019ve got to ride more waves. It all goes in the bank.\u201d<\/p>\n
So what do you want to be better at doing thirty (or ten) years from now? Whatever your answer is, the time to start working on it is right now. In his wonderful little book, Mastery<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, George Leonard says, \u201cWe tend to assume that mastery requires a special ticket available only to those born with exceptional abilities. But mastery isn\u2019t reserved for the supertalented or even those who are fortunate enough to have gotten an early start. It\u2019s available to\u00a0 anyone who is willing to get on the path and stay on it\u2014regardless of age, sex or previous experience.\u201d<\/p>\n We live in a time of instant results and instant gratification\u2014not a culture that\u2019s conducive to taking on a project and sticking with it for years. This quick results attitude aborts many wonderful ideas. Kids seem to understand the power of practice better than their elders. After all, they\u2019re learning everything from the ground up, but oo many adults are not as willing to invest the time and effort. What a shame. Practice has other rewards besides ultimate mastery.<\/p>\n Recently I wrote about John Higgins, the reluctant <\/a>Compelling Storytelling<\/a><\/strong> attendee, and I mentioned that he\u2019d begun a daily writing practice. Here\u2019s what he wrote to me after I pointed that out.<\/p>\n Thank you for writing that I had started a “writing practice.”\u00a0 I had not thought of writing as I do my work with visually\u00a0 impaired people as “a practice”\u00a0 and now I do which gives makes it a bigger priority and much more real in my mind.\u00a0<\/p>\n A practice. A writing practice. A daily commitment to the discipline of writing.\u00a0<\/p>\n I have always loved how “practice” means too that we never stop\u00a0learning and never have all the answers but we continue to practice our\u00a0skills.\u00a0<\/p>\n I take it one step further and remind myself to practice the process\u00a0and not perfection.\u00a0 This keeps me from freezing up and resisting out of\u00a0fear of failure because I learned that if I could not do something\u00a0perfectly I would not do it at all.\u00a0 Took me years to become aware I was a perfectionist that way.\u00a0<\/p>\n So, I practice. And, I have a writing practice.\u00a0<\/p>\n Damn, I like the sound of that!<\/p>\n \u00a0My first teacher told me, \u201cYou only have to practice on the days that you eat.\u201d ~\u00a0Hilary Hahn<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0<\/p>\n One of the nice bonuses of living in Las Vegas is reading Steven Kalas’ Human Matters column in the Sunday paper. Today’s piece is called Those Pursuing a Calling Serve as Inspiration to Others<\/a><\/em>. Take a look for yourself.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My brother Jim lives in California and is an avid surfer. He\u2019s also 62 years old. One day we were talking on the phone and he said,\u00a0 \u201cI was driving to the beach yesterday morning and it was still dark. I was thinking, \u2018Why am I doing this?\u2019\u201d \u201cYou\u2019re doing it so you can have…<\/p>\n