Let's Talk About Practice!

We’re continuing our January series on motivation and goal setting. Today we’re talking about practice.

We’re Talkin’ About PRACTICE

I don’t watch a lot of basketball, but I’ll never forget hearing Allen Iverson of the Philadelphia 76ers talk about practice. Or rather, I heard Allen Iverson talk about NOT practicing. During his two and a half minute rant with the press, Iverson says the word “practice” 22 times.

And trust me, it’s not because he loves practice.

Now, more than two decades later, we’re still talking about practice. This time, in pop culture. The fictional futbol coach Ted Lasso turns the tables and schools his franchise player, Jamie Tart, on what practice really means. (Hint: it’s not just about you.)

You can watch a cool mashup of the two scenes here:

Whether a fictional futbol coach like Lasso says it is or a celebrated basketball player like Iverson says it isn’t, I think we can all agree that practice is important.

Most of us were not born sports prodigies. In order to get better at something, we have to do it the old-fashioned way—through grit and hard work—and yes, lots and lots of practice.

Remember the butterflies that tickled your tummy the first time somebody asked you to get on a bike or jump from the diving board into the deep end of the pool? Learning new skills can feel scary and even unsafe. But these everyday activities aren’t really terrifying and dangerous at all.

They ARE simply unpracticed.

Many, many hours of sustained practice go into making hard things look easy.

I read just this week of a woman who first started playing the piano at the age of 60. Now she’s in her 80s and has been playing beautifully for more than twenty years.

Humans have an infinite capacity for learning.

Practice is never wasted.

It’s hard to learn new things as we get older, but not for the reasons you might think. Acquiring new skills is harder because most older people tax their brain worrying about relationships, work, and money. These worries take their toll and hijack the gray matter that could be dedicated to curious pursuits. (We’ll talk about how to turn off worry in another post)

You know, I sometimes dream of going back to school and getting another degree. There’s a small part of me that thinks, “But Chantel, you’ll be in your 50s by the time you graduate.” And then I remember: “And how old will I be in four years if I don’t go back to school?”

What gets practiced gets perfected. Somewhere, there’s a person who has something to learn. And somewhere there’s a person who has something to share. And somewhere there are people who are making each other better because they are committed to practicing (and perfecting) together.

Don’t quit. Just practice.

Want more good stuff?

Tell me what you’d like to learn in the new year or what you’re practicing now. I’d love to know, and I read every message. :)

How Thinking Small Might Lead to Your Next Big Breakthrough

Happy 2024!

If you’re anything like me, you welcome the new year with open arms. For many, it’s a time to reflect on what worked and what didn’t and to devote at least a day or two to deciding what’s worth taking into the new year.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this blog and what I want my writing life to look like in 2024. While I wrote everyday last year (I have the journal to prove it!), I knew that heading into this year I wanted to be more intentional about what gets shared in this space. To that end, you’ll be seeing some changes. For one, each month will encompass a theme aimed to help you—and me— be more intentional with the work we do. I promise the content will be short, yet helpful.

January’s theme: Goal Setting and Motivation

This week: Think Small

The 1960s ushered in the Creative Revolution in the world of advertising. Bill Bernbach spurned traditional advertising theory and urged marketers to think differently. He said,

“Let us blaze new trails. Let us prove to the world that good taste, good art, and good writing can be good selling.”

— Bill Bernbach

And he didn’t waste any time. His ad campaign for the Volkswagen Beetle turned advertising on its head by eschewing the flashy pictures and wordy content that had been popular for selling muscle cars for decades. Two words: THINK SMALL accompanied a tiny picture of the Volkswagen surrounded by a whole lot of white space.

This ad campaign, while innovative for the time, might not turn heads today. After all, you and I have grown up in the era of Apple Computers. Minimalism is firmly entrenched, and dare I say—here to stay.

But those words—THINK SMALL—they should cause us to pause. In a world that’s constantly telling us to think bigger, I appreciate someone giving me permission to think small. When thinking big seems overwhelming, take a moment to reflect on the small things that give you life. While you may not be able to spend 2024 going back to school or starting a new business, you might be able to volunteer in a school helping kids to read or maybe you can sign up for a class or workshop to learn a skill you’ve always wanted to try. You never know what big things might be birthed from the little choices you make today.

The Upside of Thinking Small

One of the best things about the Volkswagen campaign was that it was honest. The car was small, slow, and ugly. BUT…it could fit in tight parking spaces, the insurance payments were low, and repair costs were cheap too. Thinking small allows us to be honest about our own imperfections. To be sure, your imperfections are your superpowers!

That last statement may sound trite, but you know how I know it’s true? Because I know people who are facing insurmountable obstacles, who can barely dare to imagine what this next year will look like because of what they already know they are facing down. And yet, by God’s grace, these friends are putting one foot in front of the other and getting through the days, minute by minute and hour by hour. They are thinking small, and by doing so, they are living LARGE.

But I digress.

Why Now

If you wait for the big revelation, just be mindful that it may never come. If you feel like life is busy and that you never have time, chunking down a big goal into smaller daily deposits can be the key to getting you where you want to be in 2024. I know I didn’t do everything I wanted to do last year, but everyday I found time to read one chapter of the Bible, write one page in my daily journal, and practice Spanish for ten minutes. While these small habits won’t win any prizes, they helped me realize that thinking small is about more than habits. Certainly, there’s no shortage of strategy advice about how to make resolutions stick. We don’t need another tip or trick to do that, thank you very much.

This year, when you think small, think about Volkswagen and about how their ad campaign revolutionized the world of advertising. They didn’t do what everybody else was doing, and they changed the world. You can, too.

Want More Good Stuff?

A LITTLE NEW YEAR’S ADVICE

Can I have your attention, please?

It’s time for a little New Year’s motivation.

Now, before you groan, complain about yet another email claiming to help you achieve your New Year goals, and delete this email altogether, hear me out.

When I was a kid, spending weekends hanging out at the mall with my friends, there was a store we used to like to visit. Many graduation presents ended up coming from that store. You may remember it—it had the cheesy posters that college students had hanging on their walls. They often took these posters to their first job because—hello— they included such mantras as “There is no I in TEAM” and “The Road to Success is Always Under Contruction.”

My favorite one, though, might be “Your attitude determines your altitude.”

Read that again.

YOUR ATTITUDE DETERMINES YOUR ALTITUDE.

So cheesy! But I can totally see that rocket pointed at the sky and those big words written in a Galactic-like script:

Your attitude determines your altitude.

That was the one teachers liked to drop when anyone started complaining about all those pesky math problems she assigned for homework. “When are we going to use this?” we used to mutter under our breath.

As it turns out, ALL. THE. TIME. (Don’t believe me? Try tripling a recipe to cook for a crowd, comparing prices at the grocery store, or managing household expenses. Just yesterday, Gavin told me there’s no formula he uses more than the one about “percent change.” It’s vital to his business!)

---

ATTITUDE IN SPACE

Anyway, that quote about attitude is more than just a cliche. In the world of aeronautics, attitude isn’t the mood that determines your behavior; it’s the position that determines your destination. To be sure, the sky isn’t even the limit. When you’re riding in a rocket, up and down are totally relative.

When I first heard this, my mind was BLOWN.

Attitude is part of the description of how an object is placed in the space it occupies. Aircraft and spaceships use attitude to determine position. In order for the ship to go in the right direction, attitude must be monitored and controlled. If even a tiny mistake in the way the ship is pointed isn't corrected, the ship can end up millions of miles off course. Expensive equipment would be lost, to say nothing of the astronauts aboard and what that would mean for them!

Behavioral scientists might have hijacked the phrase, but rocket scientists invented it.

An example: Apollo 8 flew more than 580,000 miles and landed just 1.6 miles from its target point in the Pacific Ocean. That mission set the standard for landing accuracy, inspiring eight more Apollo missions that flew all way to the moon and back to land less than two miles from their intended targets. None of this would have been possible without calculations of attitude.

So…let me ask you a question:

How’s your attitude?

Nothing causes remorse quite like the realization that time has run out and you didn’t do any of the things you said you were going to do. Like me, you probably have a general idea about how you’d like this year to go. Maybe you’ve created your own 2023 dream list. But how do you get there?

Let’s get started.

The first and easiest thing to do is to point yourself in the right direction.

Once you’ve got the orientation right, now all you have to do is stay the course. But that’s the hard part. You have to keep going in the right direction. Spaceships stay on course by adjusting attitude with tiny thrusters containing compressed gases. As the thrusters release the gas, the spaceship undergoes micro-modifications to get it back on course.

In my university physics class, we worked a lot of problems that included the phrase “all things held constant” and “without friction.” In real life, though, all things are NOT held constant, and friction, unfortunately, is our constant companion. Something or someone is sure to thwart our best-laid plans. Reading about attitude, however, provides me with encouragement. Even rocket scientists have to continually make adjustments in order to get where they need to be. Mid-course corrections are not only necessary, they are planned.

And that’s good news for us, too.

Constantly evaluating where we are ensures we’re on the right path.

I think sometimes we don’t want to think about the things that might hold us back or the things that could go wrong. But that would be a mistake. As you begin this year, go ahead and plan for the minor adjustments you’ll have to make along the way. When things go off-course, as they inevitably will, what might you need to do in order to get back on track? Planning for setbacks ensures we’re not caught off guard. No one wants to be blindsided by something that could easily be corrected with a tweak here or a nip there, especially when that something could have been anticipated before it even happened.

OK…so how do you do this?

Designate several times throughout the year to check-in with yourself and figure out what needs to change so you can stay on track with your own far-reaching goals. You’ve already heard that writing down and sharing goals increases your chances of achieving them. And that’s true. But don’t just write them down. Review them. Often. Assess yourself. If needed, find an accountability partner. My friend, Jen Soong, and I have been doing this for years. She lives 2,500 miles from me, but once a month we get on a Zoom call and celebrate wins, encourage each other in the places we’ve fallen short, and challenge one another to keep going when the going gets tough.

Every month, Jen helps me adjust my attitude—and in more ways than one!

If you’ve been wondering how I know all this stuff about spaceships and Physics, it’s because I’ve been listening to Michael Collins’ fascinating memoir called Carrying the Fire, about his time as a NASA Astronaut. And if you’ve never heard of Michael Collins, it’s because he’s often called “the forgotten astronaut.” While Buzz and Neil were out frolicking on the moon, he was the guy who had to stay behind, orbit the moon in the command module, and ensure they all got back to earth safely.

I’m cheering for you!

And in the spirit of being cheesy (and space exploration in general), I’ll leave you with a mantra from another poster:

“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.”

(Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)

Want more good stuff?

WINSday on Wednesday--Recovering a Sense of Strength (And not Being Afraid to Ask "What's Next?")

Heart pounding.
Racing.
Shaking.
Can’t sleep.

Have you ever felt so anxious you just didn’t think you could face another day?

At college last year, that’s how our daughter felt. I am her mom, and there was nothing I could do to make the pain stop. Some boo boos need more than a band-aid and a kiss. I didn’t know if she’d ever come back from that dark place. Where was the brave little girl I raised? The one who was unafraid, who was a runner, and who loved art? In her place lived a paralyzed, scared, and lonely shadow of the girl I knew. When would my daughter return?

Isn’t it funny what we tell kids about college?

We tell them it will be the best years of their lives, that they will make the best friends they’ve ever had, and that they will enjoy freedom unlike anything they have ever known. And then we pack them up, set up their dorm room, and say good-bye. Our promises float away like little thought balloons. It takes nearly 200 hours of time spent together to make a new friend, and new experiences, even good ones, are an adjustment. Learning to live on our own, forge new study habits, and navigate the complicated relationships inherent in dorm life are no picnic.

No one tells us about these things.

And Christiana wanted to come home.

Truth be told, I didn’t want her to come home. I wanted her to tough it out and figure it out. But she couldn’t. She was paralyzed and traumatized and so coming home was inevitable. Thankfully, she stayed enrolled and this fall she moved into a new apartment with new roommates at a new school. I think she’s spent the night at our house maybe twice this entire first semester. Last year, she was driving from home to school (nearly two hours away) several times a week and sometimes having a panic attack before she even arrived.

Since then, a tremendous amount of growth has happened. In the fullness of time. When she (not me) was ready. (This did not happen overnight, and it did not happen without a lot of intervention, prayer, and help from a wide array of sources.)

Today’s WINSday on Wednesday is inspired by her journey and the path she’s taken to becoming the woman she is. Twenty years old, and I couldn’t be more proud of her. Rather than allow her past disappointment become a barrier to future success, she has instead decided to ask, “What’s next?”

These are her words from her heart for 2020.

2020 Goals

I woke up in the middle of the night with these four words on my heart:

1. Renew.

2. Peace.

3. Courage.

4. Significance.

All week I had been praying for God to give me a word for this New Year—something to work on or just a word that could be my focus for 2020. He wasn’t telling me anything. But then out of nowhere, these four words were my answer.

I have just come out of the hardest season of my life. Renew is a good word considering there is a lot that has been instilled in me that needs to be renewed. In the past year I struggled with so much anxiety. I am just coming out of this hard season, and I still harbor more fear than I’ve ever had in my life. I need to renew the peace and courage I used to have. I don’t want to live a life of fear. Fear is not from God.

I also want this next year to be peaceful. I am ready to renew that peace. I’ve been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder. Everything stirs up fear. Things that used to be so easy for me, like traveling to a new place, have become hard. Right now, I would rather stay at home where everything is familiar than embark on something new. If you asked me right in this moment to go love on people in Kenya (a place I love), believe it or not, I might actually say no. Traveling around the world has been something I have loved my whole life. Kenya is by far my favorite country. Two years ago, I would have told you I was never coming home from there.

I am saying right now that I am committed to no longer living in fear. I am starting the journey right now to renew the peace and courage that once was thriving in my heart. I know my God can do that. He raised Jesus from the dead. That same spirit that turned death to life is alive in me right now. Imagine what all He can do in me!

The word significance is going to be my word for the decade. In this next ten years, I want to graduate college, get married, start a family, and who knows what else. I want to make sure that I am living a life of significance. Yes, I want to be successful too, but who cares in the end if I made a lot of money and did a lot of stuff for things that don’t matter. I want to change the world. I want to make a difference and the only way to truly do that is by living a life of significance. Day by day, I am committed to renewing my heart, to ridding it of fear and asking courage and peace to take its place.

Here’s to 2020!

If you missed our interview on Mission Driven Monday last year, you can catch up here.

Want more good stuff?