Fall in love with the journey, not the destination!

I used to get so frustrated when I made the same error or mistake all the time. Or if the coach told me the same thing over and over again. Here he goes again. I know coach, I know! It's not like I want to do it wrong. I thought I had gotten it right and nailed it...but not the case. Still missed the mark.

In a previous post I shared about my journey playing basketball. At one point I really struggled with three pointers and I mean I STRUGGLED. And I desperately needed to be able to add this to my game. I just couldn't figure out why some would go in with a crisp "swish" and others would brick off the backboard. I shot it just like last time....why won't you go in?

Wishing for something is very different than working for it.

I realized later that I was being impatient. I wanted it to happen right then and there just because I thought it should. Instead, I needed to slow everything down. I needed to focus on every single movement I was trying to execute and stop trying to fast-forward my way to success. I had to think very carefully about everything I was doing. I had to pay attention to the way my knees bent, the position of my elbow, the movement of my arm, the placement of the ball in my palm, how my wrist moved, etc. I had to study people that were good at this skill and learn their secret to success. And when I finally got it right-boy oh boy did I celebrate! I thought I was hot stuff. First three of the game-SWISH! And of course what happened next? Air-ball!

I learned very quickly that you can't practice until you get something right. That only shows you what you need to do in order to find success. But in order to truly be consistently successful, you have to give yourself more reps. Thinking that if you do it right once means you will now do it right every time is another way your mind is trying to fast forward to success. It takes more than that. Your body moves by habits. And I had 1,000s of attempts that were done the wrong way....this one time I did it right was not enough to convince my body that this was "the" way to do things.

So, I had to practice the new way over and over and over again until I couldn't get it wrong. I spent hours and hours, days and days doing the same thing over and over and over and over. Was it boring? Only if I told myself it was boring or that it wasn't worth it. The trick here is to love this part of the journey. Love being able to focus on this one movement until you rewire your brain to do it as easily as you blink or breathe.

That's when I learned to fall in love with the process of getting better. I started to enjoy the journey of getting better even more than I did the destination of success. That is when I became a better athlete.

"Don't practice something until you get it right. Practice until you can't get it wrong."