IS PRACTICE AN OPPORTUNITY OR AN OBLIGATION?
If you’re an athlete playing on a team, practice time is pretty clearly defined. You probably have a specific schedule or calendar outlining exactly when it starts and ends each day. Plus you have that musty, mesh jersey on to validate for you that you are in fact at practice. For the rest of us, when, where, and how we’re practicing isn’t always as clear, but the truth is, each one of us spends a lot of our time doing just that, whether we realize it or not. We may be practicing our athletic skills, our job skills, our relational skills, or our behavioral skills, but we are often, as Merriam Webster defines the word, "doing something regularly as an ordinary part of life." We just aren't always validating it with the musty, mesh jersey.
Because for almost all of us our time spent practicing far exceeds our time spent performing, our perspective on practice is paramount. So the question today is, how do you see practice? Is practice for you an opportunity or an obligation? That question is so important to answer, because how you choose to see practice determines the value you get - and, in many ways, the performer you become - from the experience you've been given. It's an investment either made or mismanaged.
Carol Dweck, a Standord University professor and researcher, clarifies in her book Mindset the difference between what she calls a “‘growth mindset” - one that leads us to frame practice as an opportunity, and a “fixed mindset” - one that leads us to frame the same experience as an obligation. Each mindset creates its own perspective, and each perspective creates its own experience. There are a number of key differences between the two. Today might be a great day to evaluate your mindset - and your perspective - on this critically important part of becoming a champion.
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There is little doubt that champions see practice as an opportunity, not an obligation. They are hungry to learn and receptive to coaching. They are focused and purposeful. They understand that failure is a part of the improvement process, and they’re willing to leave their comfort zone as part of that pursuit. Champions are stacking successful yesterdays, todays, and tomorrows, and they're grateful they get to do the hard work that becoming their best requires. They’re committed to running their own race and they’re motivated by their own desire - not someone else’s. Champions believe the best is ahead.
If you choose to develop a growth mindset, and as a result choose to see practice as an opportunity, then of course it changes your focus, your attitude, and your approach. But most importantly, it changes your trajectory. If you see practice as an obligation, then you’ll probably be tomorrow pretty much an exact replica of who you are today. But if you see practice as an opportunity, who you are tomorrow is gonna be different - better - than who you are today. Becoming a champion starts with choosing the right mindset, one that fortifies the belief that in the important areas of life, like at practice, your perspective matters. It fortifies the belief that today is an opportunity to be taken advantage of. And it fortifies the belief that for you, the best is ahead.