Practice Makes Perfect

The other day I raised the question of subconscious sabotage. I wondered if the young catcher (my son) may have injured himself in response to unconscious inner conflict about his worthiness of starting over some seniors on his team. I still think it is a possibility. I can assure you, he has that conflict no more.

However, here is another possibility: lack of practice on that particular play. Have you ever grown comfortable with your performance and stopped practicing part of it?

I know in this case, the catchers have been so busy working with pitchers, that they have been robbed of their own defensive practice. It takes experience and repetition to anticipate certain move from a ball. Then it takes more practice to get it right.

"Practice makes perfect!" or so we are told. In reality, practice only makes perfect when we constantly learn from the feedback and make minor adjustments to improve. Otherwise, practice only makes permanent. How many times do we fail to read the feedback of our own "game," and choose instead to go through sloppy motions?

In conclusion, I don't know if Jordan's injury was totally a result of subconscious sabotage or just failure to practice that catch, or a combination of both. What I do know is that I am stirred to examine my own performance.

Even though my main game is not athletic, I also want to be free from every trace of self-sabotage, and I want to practice thinking, speaking and producing winning results. I choose to do better today than yesterday. And then - I'll be even better tomorrow. How about you? Are you willing to challenge yourself to new and improved levels of success?

Keep playing hard!

Gina

PS - many of you are enjoying the Athlete's Edge, Flow On Demand. Somehow we are having technical difficulties getting some little videos up for you to view and answer your questions. But stay tuned! If you haven't seen the book, you can check it out here: Flow On Demand