WOD WISDOM: Don’t be afraid to practice

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Philadelphia 76ers All-Star Allen Iverson famously talked about practice in his post-game press conference.

prac•tice (verb)

perform (an activity) or exercise (a skill) repeatedly or regularly in order to improve or maintain one’s proficiency.

There’s only one way to get good at something — practice.

Michael Jordan didn’t wake up one day as the world’s greatest basketball player. He practiced.

Pulitzer prize winning authors didn’t pick up a pen one day and write an award-winning novel. They practiced.

Grammy award winning artists didn’t sing their first song and win an award. They practiced.

If you want to be good at something you have to practice.

You can’t expect to do something once, twice, 100 times and be good at it. it’s takes thousands, if not millions, of repetitions to perfect being good at something.

If you want to get a muscle up, practice.

If you want to snatch your bodyweight, practice.

If you want to get a pull up, practice.

Don’t be afraid to practice in front of others. People won’t try something new or practice something they are not good at because they are afraid to have someone see them fail. You have to be willing to set your ego aside and be willing to miss a shot in front of someone or sing a note off key, knowing that it will make you better in the long run. Don’t be afraid to fail. Everyone fails at some point.

The people you see doing the things you want to do only achieved them because they were willing to try. They were willing to be vulnerable. You’ll never achieve your goals sitting on the sidelines. You have to practice them to achieve them.

If you’re not sure how to practice, ask someone. Ask stupid questions, ask questions you think you already know the answers to, ask how you can get better, ask what you can do differently.

Then practice. Practice things that work for you. Practice things that work for others. Find out what works for you and what doesn’t.

Make time to practice, whether it’s 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 30 minutes, make time in your schedule. Don’t make excuses why you can’t practice. Make an excuse to practice.

Practice the small things you know you can do. Practice the hard things that you don’t think you can do. You may surprise yourself.

Don’t get discouraged. Practice when you don’t feel like you’ll ever achieve your goal. Practice when people tell you can’t do something.

Now there’s only one thing left to do — go practice.