You've heard it a million times, "Practice Makes Perfect" right. The question is, what are you practicing?

In one of my favorite movies The Peaceful Warrior, there is an exchange between the two main characters, Dan (a college age aspiring gymnast) and his soon to be mentor Socrates (as Dan would later nickname him).

Dan has put all of his time and focus into mastering gymnastics in order to qualify for the Olympics. This eggs in one basket approach has led to atrophy in the other areas of his life. Outside of gymnastics he thinks little of himself, has poor relationships and frankly doesn't know what the hell he's doing.

So as Socrates observes the sloppy life Dan has created for himself he shares this observation with Dan, "Dan, you know the difference between you and me? You practice gymnastics, I practice everything."

Say What?

What did Soc mean by that statement? He meant that while Dan gave his undivided attention to the mastery of gymnastics, he (Soc) gave his undivided attention to mastering his life. 

I work with many people from all walks of life and without exception they come to me in a similar state. They have focused so hard and so long on mastering thoughts and behaviors they don't want, procrastination, negative thinking etc.

The reality it that they're very good at these things because that's what they've been practicing all this time. If procrastination gets your focus and your effort you're going to get damn good it, and a lot of people are.

Now What?

The key to changing this pattern is found in a question posed to me by one of my mentors. He asked, "If your life were the most important thing in the world to you, how would you treat it?"

Far too many people treat an aspect of their life, career, family, a single relationship as the most important thing and guess what happens? The other essential aspects of life wither out of neglect because you starve them through lack of attention.

When contemplating what it is I do professionally, personally, why I believe I'm on this planet. This is what I came up with. I'm here to connect, to connect with this moment, with others, with my passion and to hopefully help others do the same.

Having struggled with connection my entire life I decided at age 35 (now 42) to emerse myself in the study of how we connect so I could master it and make it the one thing I excelled at instead of it being my greatest weakness.

I succeeded, why? Because I gave it my undivided attention. 

What was my greatest discovery about connection? That it is the meaning of life. The more deeply we connect with ourselves, with others, with nature and with our purpose, the more fulfilled we are, the more we live and the more we give to this world.

So my question to you is, how's your practice coming along?