Practice What Matters

I remember a time when I was younger, and I was taking piano lessons.  My dad told me that if I wanted to get better at it, I needed to practice. I remember that sense of pride I had when I played at my piano recital thereafter--that sense of accomplishment, knowing that I had worked hard to get where I was on that day.  The strange thing is, that performance wasn't perfect.  I'm not even certain it was anywhere near to it, but the effort I had put into practicing made the end result, imperfect as it was, worthwhile.  I remember thinking that I wanted to feel that way about everything, and thus practice should somehow produce similar results.  But team sports proved to be my undoing in that regard.  No matter how much I practiced on my own, I could never quite sync up with the rest of the team.  That lesson was disheartening, as I recall wanting to quit basketball at the time.  My parents wouldn't let me, and I was relegated to score-keeper for our team.  But even that was pretty difficult with my eyesight issues, and I despaired of ever finding a place on that team.  I was relieved when it ended, and though I tried my hand at volleyball, too, and drill team later, I often felt like a burden to the groups I did school activities with.

Coming to the realization that you're never going to be able to be the best at something no matter how much you practice is a rather depressing conclusion, but it was something I came to understand as time went on.  And maybe if someone had helped me see that being the best wasn't as important as doing my best, I might have found myself in a different place in my life than I am now.  But our society prizes competition; it is the mainstay of capitalism, and perhaps that is why I realized that capitalism and competition weren't ways that I wanted to experience value in my life--because in many ways, I couldn't.

It's then that I began a journey to try and find a way through life where who I was, was as prized as what I could do--where being the best wasn't necessary, but rather, simply being was.

I think, far too often, we over-emphasize unimportant things in our lives and the lives of our children.  We tell ourselves and them that success is the important thing, rather than finding contentment and joy in the pursuits we endeavor.  We celebrate perfection, emphasizing the best of a thing, instead of rewarding the effort of the endeavor being undertaken.  And while it is never a bad thing to appreciate the best of something in life, when we embrace it as an all-consuming passion for ourselves and others, I fear we lose out on the real beauty and joy of many accomplishments in this life.

My father, when he sat me down at the piano for that hour a day wasn't looking for perfection.  He just wanted me to try--to work at getting better, because he knew that even if I didn't master the piano, I could still derive joy and a sense of accomplishment in the attempt.  He wanted to show me that practicing yielded results.  And while I wish I had understood better that the point of things wasn't to be the best, I still remember today that practicing can make me better at things that are important to me.

So, today, maybe practice being kinder, or working past obstacles.  Practice thinking about politics, or learning something new.  Practice the things that are important to you, and you will get better at them.  It doesn't ever matter if you're the best at them; what matters is that you tried.

Practice makes progress Painting by Sai Priya Mahajan