What comes before the step before the first step? Well, if the step before the first step is firm intention, then the step before that would be awareness, I guess?
I have mentioned Bjørn Stærk in the past, one of the wisest men who knows my name. (Wisdom is a rare trait at the best of times, and there is little but fortunate coincidence or divine intervention that might cause a meeting between me and a wise person, in the physical world or the electronic world. I am not a Great Attractor pulling such people to me, at least not yet. ^_^)
Thanks to persistent retweets from Mr Stærk, I have become aware of Farnam Street, a blog of specialized wisdom seeking, in a totally secular setting as far as I have seen. (The same goes for Stærk himself. Also, unlike the other, he has gradually come to concentrate on writing for the Norwegians, who have their own language. My own language, used to be. Well, I wish him luck with that.)
Farnam Street recently had an entry called “What is deliberate practice?“, a timely reminder that practice does not make perfect unless it passes certain criteria. First of all, it must not be too easy. Repeating what can already be done without conscious effort will not give noticeable progress (although I would add that it can keep us from backsliding.) On the other hand, if it is alien enough that we just flounder and panic, we cannot actually practice. (We don’t learn from our errors if errors are all we do, only when they are exceptions.) I already knew these. But we also need immediate feedback. I did not know that! That makes it much harder. I notice this at work.
It is a good article and I recommend it. I may even buy the book. But I already have a backlog of books to read.
***
But if I know how to make progress, I still need to know what to make progress in and preferably also why. When you are a student, this question is easy. Your teachers tell you what you must study. Later on, you may be lucky and find a workplace which is similarly structured. But for most of us, life is pretty disorganized. The tasks we meet at work are either repetitive, or they are seemingly random so that we can’t prepare for them. The same applies to most things we meet at home.
The only obvious exception I can think of is learning a new language, and you probably didn’t even think of that if English is your mother tongue. Still, there is a number of us who either know people in other countries or want to go there, or simply have an interest in the culture of another nation. For instance, Japan is the “holy country” for many young people around the world. Learning even the basics of that language would certainly take deliberate practice!
But I’m 53 years old now, even though my hair is the only part of my body that has realized it yet. I have begun to see the impermanence of all things. When I think about the effort of deliberate practice, a quote springs to mind from one of the least popular books of the Bible, the rather cynical Ecclesiastes, here in Chapter 4, v 7-8.
Then I turned my attention to something else under the sun that is pointless: the situation in which a solitary individual without a companion, with neither son nor brother, keeps on working endlessly but never has enough wealth. “For whom” [he should ask], “am I working so hard and denying myself pleasure?” This too is truly pointless, a sorry business.
For whom or what am I making effort and denying myself slack? Well, I’m not, really. Not much at least. But given the requirements we just noted for deliberate practice, it certainly is – as the article repeatedly says – not fun.You have to suffer somewhat. (And if you practice the violin or trombone, so must your neighbors.) Why? What is worth doing all this?
There are Olympic games going on these days. Despite the name, it is not all fun and games for those who participate. They are almost without exception mutants with abilities others cannot achieve if they strive for them all their life. And even then, they have to discipline their body and keep it in slavery. And for what? Some money, a brief appearance in the news, and the knowledge that they have become the best or at least one of the best. And then they die. Well, we all do, and I guess it is better to die having accomplished something than nothing. Who knows.
But for me, even accomplishment seems hollow unless it too is for someone or something. As in the quote above, it may be for the benefit of a son or brother, that is to say, a family member. It could be for some greater cause, like the happiness or prosperity of a number of people, even people we don’t know.
I must admit, I am fascinated by people who set out to radically change themselves. I enjoy reading exercise blogs, weight loss blogs, exchange student blogs etc. Actually I would probably enjoy reading a weight gain blog as well: It is the intentional transformation of oneself that fascinates me.
But what I really wish I could read was a theosis blog – the ongoing story of a human becoming transformed into divine nature. Now that would be inspirational. Still, there are good reasons why this cannot be blogged about and only rarely even be subject of an autobiography. There is a “general law” as Mouravieff puts it, which will seek with great strength to stop anyone who tries to break out from their sleep. Calling attention to oneself while still in the process is like trying to break into a guarded house. The Conspiracy will come down on you like a ton of bricks, as they say in America. So I shall content myself to read about your efforts within this life.
How about you? Hopefully you have someone or something you want to work hard for. Even if it is just your livestock, I would not mind hearing about it.
Currently, we work just to get by. Eventually we may be able to stop, if we have taken care of the kids and their educations, paid off our house, etc. Then we’ll travel together, as well as just generally hanging out together and enjoying each other. That’s what we work for. And because we like what we do, mostly. Hopefully, we will make the lives of others better somehow. We both work among prisoners (Jeff full-time and I part-time), and hopefully our “testimony”, either literally or by example, are helpful. We care and act accordingly. Having to be so careful so that we aren’t taken advantage of and manipulated (and they are GREAT at manipulation) makes it more difficulty, but at least we are among people who appreciate kindness, for the most part. The actual public school students I’ve been among . . . some I’ve helped. Some of them it has come from a serious conflict between what I expected and what they were willing to put forth, and some never tried to perform to my expectations. That’s where the real effort comes into my work, though. The work itself isn’t too difficult, but figuring out how to wriggle one’s way into a kid’s heart and mind is really a never-ending chore. Like the prisoners, hopefully I’ve made some positive impact. I pray it is so, at least. Of course we have our personal children, and they will be our real measure of success. So far, so good. They are good, kind, intelligent and funny. Hopefully they will be well-adjusted enough to get along well in the world after we’re gone and take what we’ve tried to teach them to an even higher level of accomplishment than we ever reached.
As far as “practice”, I’ve always told my kids (students and children) that practice does not make perfect . . . PERFECT practice makes perfect. Whether you are studying spelling, practicing music, learning material for a test . . . what I always made myself do was practice until I could repeat whatever I was working on perfectly three times in a row. If I did it twice and then messed up, I had to start all over until I could CONSISTENTLY do it perfectly. Obviously, if it were something important, I might replace the “three times in a row” with five or ten times in a row. It just depended.
Things like weight loss or other things would, of course, be nice. I am a woman, and I’m not sure there has ever been a woman who hasn’t been displeased with her appearance. As I get older, though, it matters less and less. I’ve quite reconciled myself with the fact that it’s Jenna’s turn to be the pretty one! And besides, these aren’t the treasures we’re supposed to worry about. It was hard to let go of the treasures of the body, but I’m doing it more happily than I’d have thought possible years ago.
Now, that practice part I mentioned earlier is all a very shallow, superficial way of looking at the topic of practice. I seem to be able to consistently be a better person, though, if I have reminders posted around me. Not necessarily where others can see them (although sometimes, if I notice a particular class being deficient in . . . I don’t know . . . sharing, or speaking kindly, or something along those lines . . . I do make posters or signs, etc., and hang them prominently), but just where I will come across them in my regular day. I read my devotionals in the mornings, and generally they will have some part of them that speaks to me, but I am bad about forgetting my good aims and intentions when in a stressful situation. Making literal, tangible signs for myself helps me. I really WANT to keep my heart right, and it does seem to get a little righter the more I practice. I’m not sure it’ll ever be truly right, but I do try. And I try to remember to practice!
Kristi, I am really impressed with your attitude and how you practice it. It is a shame it is not you who are writing a regular blog, so people could learn from you! I also rather want to adopt your expression, “PERFECT practice makes perfect”. Your students are lucky to have a teacher like you!
Oh, pish! Nothing impressive here. Just a sort of urge to get things RIGHT, and an irritation when I don’t. And I certainly don’t have enough for a blog! I feel stupid (quite reasonably) when I reply to your posts, and it is a very deserved feeling, as you can tell. I live in a very different . . . level . . .from you, as you know. I can’t hope to actually catch up with you, but I do try to understand as much as I can!