Fitness
I’ve always ALWAYS been a strong (pun intended) advocate for a healthy and active lifestyle. When I’ve been unable to attend a gym I would try and fit some running into my shedule, walk instead of drive and get involved in the occasional team sport. 2 years ago I started training hard. My life was in a place where I had a constant income and could afford a gym subscription again.
I had no idea getting in shape and maintaining it was that much hard work. Seriously, I always thought if you applied yourself for a month or two you would be fine. Nope. 2 years later I find I am still working on strengthening my muscles and pushing my fitness boundaries. It’s been a long process of inch by inch changes and I’ve learned a crazy amount about patience and hard work.
Writing
The story has been the same with my personal blog. At about the same time in my life I decided to get serious about my writing. I’ve always known I was “born to write,” but I wasn’t very intentional about it. I would put a story down here or there. I would sit in my back garden and scribble down a poem when I felt emotional, but none of it ever accounted to anything. I figured now that I had made the decision to start a blog the people would come flocking and the influence would roll in. Think again. It’s taken years for me to craft my voice, message and style.
That’s the thing with life, the good things and the valuable things don’t happen first try. They happen on attempt 702.
Life
I often think we miss out on so much value from life because we want to move onto the next thing. Destination disease they call it. Ok, I did it once. That should be fine, let me move on. Ok, I read that great book (or half of it), where’s the next? Where is the next adventure, where is the next boyfriend? Where is the next job, the next country? The next place.
Here’s the secret to success in your career: find someone who does it with excellence, watch and practice the same thing yourself. Over and over and over and over again. Benchmark and repeat. Benchmark and repeat. Do you want to be able to create films like Film Supply – watch their work again and again. The style will become ingrained in your head. The quality will sink in like water on winter soil. The essence and the value will slowly start to eminate from your work and your hands.
Repeat, repeat, repeat
Why is it that when we love a Video, Poem, Podcast or Book we read or listen to it once. Don’t you know that quality gets better with multiple viewings, the nuances bounce off the page and the depth becomes more clear.
When I was on a school trip we went up the caves near Johannesburg to look at the stalactites and stalagmites. It was the first time I had seen anything like that, and it was beautiful. Year after year after year, drip after drip after drip they are built. It reminds me that things in life weren’t meant to happen overnight. The seasonal practice is where the true value is found.
That’s why I read my Bible frequently (not everyday, although I would like to). I read it because it is a book rich in value. I read it because it you don’t get the point where you can apply it after going over the verses once or twice. It’s in the repetition and the practice that the change occurs.
Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance. – Samuel Johnson