Practicing It So Much That When The Moment Comes, It Just Happens

On Chris Williamson's Modern Wisdom YouTube show with Tim Kennedy, a Special Forces master sergeant and author, Kennedy was recounting the extensive training of special forces. In the fog of war there is no time to think when bullets start flying. It's all reaction. He details the many micro movements of firing a weapon during a fire fight, emptying the weapon and reloading - all within seconds. It's not a strategic - "I now need to do this" - kind of thing. It's something you've practiced tens of thousands of times. So much that when the moment comes, it just happens. It just happens. He said you practice it so much, that when the moment comes, it just happens! But first, it's a slow, arduous journey of working hard. Everything is hard, until it's easy. Everything is slow, until it's fast.  This is why most things remain hard to many people. They don't put in the work. It's why we remain broke, fat and miserable, too. And why too many of us lack faith, gratitude and compassion. Because it's hard work. It's not couch potato work! Some weeks ago I mentioned to Lisa Norris, my co-host on the Grow Great podcast (a podcast about city government leadership) that every high-performer I've ever known pursues the hard stuff. They're not complacent. They're all strategic in learning more, growing and adding to their arsenal. I remarked, "Everything is hard, until it's easy and high-performer are always chasing the hard stuff." Practice doesn't make perfect, but perfect practice does. That's what we've heard for decades. It's absurd though because it presupposes that our work ought to be perfect in practice (when it doesn't matter as much). However, if the saying speaks to the process of practice being perfect (our willingness to put in the work by doing what we must in order to improve), then it's not absurd at all. When I heard Tim Kennedy's response I went back to notes I'd been making to myself about preparation (practice). I'm a lifelong fan of preparation. This - and all my podcasts - depict my fandom. I use a broadcast workflow because I'd rather prepare in advance of recording instead of just winging it, then fixing it all in editing after-the-fact. Besides, preparation is where I've found my confidence can be greatly enhanced. And I hate not feeling confident. What is confidence? Where does it come from? Where do we have it? Long ago I concluded that my confidence isn't singular. There are a few different types of confidence in my life. First, there's confidence in God. I'll call it a spiritual confidence. It's based on belief, faith and conviction. It's not an internal faith in myself, but rather it's my inner confidence in something and someone else - something much higher and more powerful than myself. My spiritual confidence is based only on the Bible because it's the only standard I have to inform me about God. Any other confidence based on feelings or intuitions or urges would come from me, not the Bible. That makes them susceptible to being mere delusions so I won't base my spiritual confidence on such things. Second, there's confidence in others. This is an external confidence based on my belief and trust in others. It may be based on past history or expected future. I'm confident that our family will help influence my five grandchildren to be successful adults, able to navigate their lives well. Ages 16 to 8, it's yet to be proven, but I have confidence in our family and in these children. Maybe it's an optimism based on the work we're putting in to help train them all. But it's not entirely based on the adults in the family. None of these 5 children have shown an unwillingness to be compliant to learn and improve. My confidence in others is based on past behaviors and on my expectations of their capabilities. It's not an absolute though because I'm not in control of what they do. I'm not confident they'll please me because that's not my expectation. I expect them to improve and grow because I care about them being their best. Third, I have confidence in myself. It's not absolute or complete. Sometimes it's spotty. More so than I'd like. My confidence in myself is mostly born from preparation...practice. In areas where I fail to focus, I struggle. Appropriately. Permit me to veer to where I lack confidence and why. The federal government is't my savior. I already have a Savior who is divine so there's no point in looking for one that's not. I know many people look at the federal government, and to a lesser degree state and local governments, to rescue them from whatever ails them. I don't. It's a conscious choice all of us make. It's problematic to put confidence where it doesn't belong because fundamentally it's delusional. It's belief in something that isn't worthy of that belief. It's unreasonable and unrealistic expectation that something will happen, which will never happen. The cavalry of government isn't coming to save us. They work vigorously to make us believe though. They desperately want and need our confidence to be placed in them. "Trust us. We know what's best. Just leave this business to us." We hear those kinds of messages from local municipalities all the way to Washington, DC. It's a global epidemic as governments are in full-blown self-preservation mode growing bigger and bigger. ...I hope we have once again reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There’s a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts."          - Ronald Reagan Self-preservation motivates those in power to remain in power. Fear contributes to the process. It works like a charm. A snake charmer! :D I only digress to point out that everybody can put their confidence where they choose. This is merely my admission of my own choices. You make those you feel are best for you. I'm on record that I'm a capitalist who enjoys the power of a free and open market. Yes, I support competition and oppose monopolies. There's nothing free about the latter. I know markets make winners and losers of us all. If I bring insufficient value, I won't survive as a business. If I bring high value, I will. Besides, I'm fond of knowing how I'm doing. Keeping score is a great thing when it comes to business and enterprise. It's a terrible thing when it comes to interpersonal relationships. In the race to bet on oneself or to bet on government, I'd much prefer to bet on myself. I view government as I view leadership. It's a focus on others and doing for others what they can't do for themselves. So while I need government and as a Christian, I pray for governments, I don't put my confidence in them - beyond trusting them to pick up my trash, make sure my water works (and is clean), make sure my toilets flush, make sure my electricity continues to work, make sure my safety is reasonably preserved, etc. I can't do those things for myself. 1 Timothy 2:1–4 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Romans 13:1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Who is working for whom? It's fundamental to the conversation about confidence and being prepared. Who is serving whom? Being in service to myself to put in the necessary work to become better isn't selfish. It's right. Everybody benefits. As I grow and improve as a person I can better influence those around me. I can make better decisions. Take better actions. Benefit myself and all around me. It can't be helped IF I practice with intensity to insure that when moments come, I'm fully prepared to do the right thing. Not without thinking, but because I already made up my mind. Because I pre-thought it by putting in the work. That's the point. Putting in the work in advance. That's the practice. Putting in the work long enough to endure the hard...until it gets easier. Then continuing it long enough until it becomes easy. Then... Advancing it up a notch (or three) to make it hard again...until it gets easier. For me, it's the drive to always make it better. It's also the dissatisfaction that it's good enough. Not to the point where my discontentment is crippling (or anywhere close to that), but to the point where I'm continually driven to improve it. It's a restlessness with complacency. For me, it's not a restlessness with calmness or quiet. I've seen that in the lives of others, people who are just perpetual motion machines. Such folks tend to not get nearly enough done though. They log a bunch of miles, but without actually going anywhere. This often mistake movement with progress. It rarely just happens for them. I know because I hear how hard they work, how much they're hustling, how fast they're working and how busy they are. "I've gotta run," they repeat. Years later, it's the same thing. These poor folks are stuck in Ground Hog Day living a life on constant REPEAT. That's not progress. That's not growing confidence. That's not practicing so when the moments comes "it just happens." It's also exhausting. And I'm only a spectator to their frenzy, but it whips me. In place of that...what if the effort were focused? Intentional. Purposeful. Strategic. What if our "practice" was driven with forethought aimed at an ideal outcome? And here's a big one: what if our practice was at something we couldn't wait to do over and over again because we desperately wanted to master it? And what if we mastered it and we still felt like we could advance in it