MONDAY MOTIVATION MINUTE – Be extremely careful of what you practice because you will undoubtedly become good at it!

When you want to get better at something, you practice. While it can be a hopeless endeavor to try for perfection, you can always strive to get better. There is a muscle memory that is developed through repetition. And repetition comes from practicing.

I can remember standing in the gym shooting 100 free throws before practice and 100 free throws after practice. I wanted to be able to hit free throws when I’m cold right off the bench and when I was dead tired at the end of overtime. So I practiced.

I wanted to hike the incredible peaks of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and not be completely exhausted when I reached the summit, so I used to load up my backpack with weights and walk up and down my stairs to get ready for a backpacking trip. My muscles got stronger and my coordination better through repetition.

The same can be said for your most powerful muscle…your brain. How do you get better at reading? You read a lot. How do you get better at meditation? You meditate a lot. How do you get better at writing or drawing? You practice a lot.

But all of this practice needs to be done correctly. What happens if you shoot 100,000 free throws but you did all 100,000 with an incorrect hand position? You will now be better at doing something the wrong way and will need to shoot another 100,000 with the correct form to get to the next level.

Now imagine you spent your entire life practicing bad thoughts? You would be an amazingly good thinker at thinking bad thoughts. You would be able to tell yourself that you are not smart enough, not likable enough, and good enough to deserve happiness. The worst part is you will believe yourself!

It is time to start to unlearn the bad mental habits you’ve been teaching yourself for too long. Here is an easy way to begin…at the end of the day, don’t harp on the things that went wrong. Think about all that went right! Think of all the good you saw that day!

So your challenge is to not come home after a long day and talk about the difficulties you faced (because you don’t want to get better at complaining and reliving the bad). Instead, when someone asks how your day went, try listing all of the good things that happened! You will be amazed at how much more enjoyable your life will become.

Practice what you want to be good at!

-Shay

Be the one who cares because there is no guarantee that anyone else will.