The Value of Practice

Kylie and I were playing on a softball team last summer. The season was interrupted by the weather and by the fact there was a big gap between the decent teams and the really bad teams. As a result of rescheduling and teams getting tired of losing, we had a couple forfeits.

Each time there was a forfeit, someone would suggest a practice. Now, this is a just-for-fun league that doesn’t matter. We each paid some money to be in it. There is no real need for a practice though.

On the other hand, we played in a beautiful area of Central Park, had marked our calendars already, and the field was reserved for us regardless.

There is just something about the idea of practice we don’t like (I’ve got the Allen Iverson interview in my head). We don’t see it as fun. There is no winning at hand. There is nothing at stake. No value.

Compete!

We like the competition of things. In all areas of life, we like to win. We are built for it. But competition is a means to an end. We do it (and ourselves) a disservice when we make life all about winning.

There is little immediate gratification in practice. Even a casual practice at Central Park does not sound fun. It sounds like work. We don’t want to work. We want to play. And win.

The irony is that practice is play. When we did decide to go to a softball practice at Central park, we had a great time. An absolute blast. Plus a couple of players from our team got picked up to play a nearby game that was short players.

Practice is Life

We think life is about the game, the contest, the competition. We think it is about who wins and loses the big game. The moment.

But life is about who we are becoming. It is about being a ball player not about being a World Series champ. One of my favorite lines in a movie is in Cool Runnings when John Candy says to his bobsledder, “A gold medal is a beautiful thing. But if you aren’t enough without it, you’ll never be enough with it.”

Practice is the hard work of life. It is the grind. The plains. It gets us in shape, hones our skills, and prepares us for the big moments. So many of us are trying to sleep in until the big game and just show up “when it matters”. We do this with our work and our marriage. We don’t see the value in the day-to-day. The value of practice.

We’re all looking for the happily-ever-after we were sold as children. We want to have the wedding or win the game or get the promotion that will propel us into the life of joy we suspect is just around the corner.

But life is about relationship. It is about work and play. It is about who we are not what we accomplish.

Everyday, we step out onto the practice field of life. If we have a big game coming up, we might be motivated to run the sprints and do the drills and get prepared. That is why competition is in us – it motivates us to do the work to make us better.

Show up for practice. Find joy in the work, purpose in the journey. It matters more than the championships. Who you are, how you play, and the perspective you adopt are the true measures of a life well lived. And you can’t achieve any of it without a good dose of practice.