on practice

When I was in seventh grade, I didn’t like family vacations. Hawaii? Nah. Hawaii is going to take me away from practicing basketball. I so badly wanted to keep practicing. How was I going to practice consistently if I was transported into one of the most beautiful, laidback areas of the world?

I’ve always been a fan of that word practice. Do that thing. Then take a break. Then do it again. And again. And again. Dribble, dribble, step back, shoot. If you miss, dribble, dribble, step back, shoot until it goes in. Swish.

I grew apart from basketball and got into bboying (breakdancing). For twelve years. Then climbing for five. I still find a lot of contentment in practice.

However, practice, to me, has expanded beyond sports. I don’t just practice climbing. I practice listening to my partner’s emotions openly, in a way where I don’t personalize it. I practice communicating with the people I love in a way that invites conversation. I practice conversations with my coworkers in a way that allows us to discuss conflict openly and healthily. I practice learning about the challenges of communities and individuals who are different from me. I practice writing. Draft first, edit later.

Practice, to me, is when I consciously act in a way that I want my future self to act. I started practicing basketball. I now practice communicating. Listening. Thinking. Feeling. Strategizing. Acting. Learning.

Take the word “practice” and add to it a word that describes a thing you enjoy doing. Your design practice. Your independent practice. Your climbing practice. Your yoga practice. Your writing practice. Your breathing practice.

Notice how those two words you’ve put together feels powerful. Inspiring, maybe. When you say that this thing is your practice, you’re owning that you want to grow at that thing.

In middle school, my basketball coach would always say: the way you practice is the way you play. This tracks with what adrienne maree brown says about practicing on purpose:

…you’re always practicing things. So it’s not like you go from not practicing to practicing, but it’s, are you practicing things on purpose? Are you practicing things you would want to practice, or are you practicing what someone else has told you [laughs] is the right way to do stuff? And once you start practicing on purpose, then you can actually practice liberation and justice and freedom and — then I think you begin to have this contentment that comes from practice.

We’re always practicing something. But is that thing I’m practicing what I intended? Or just a script handed by someone else?

What’s something you want to grow? What’s something I want to grow? How can you and I practice that today?

And where might you be overpracticing? Where can you rest, so that your practice is more sustainable? (Of course, I now enjoy vacations.)