It’s not just how hard you practice, but how often; consistently repeating and improving and honing your craft. Benjamin Disreali once said that “the secret to success is consistency of purpose.” This echos Aristotle’s thoughts on habits, which done consistently, lead to excellence. Itzhak Perlman, the violinist, once said “If I don’t practice one day, I know it. If I don’t practice two days, everyone knows it.” If you ever expect to get better, at whatever, it means you must commit to repeating the task, the action, the job until you not only get it right, but you get better.
Right now I have a goal to ride 500 miles on my bike in the month of June to raise money for children’s cancer research (www.greatcyclechallenge.com/riders/BenjaminGriffes). If I do not ride at least 4 days a week, consistently, I will not make my goal. Looking at your life, what can you do to improve on your piano playing, your skill set, your relationships (your exercising) or anything else that you will embrace for years to come? If you stretch your muscles every night, you will notice that you feel looser. If you practice speaking a foreign language everyday, you become more fluent. I challenge you to become more consistent with the things you want to improve. Now is the time, this is the place, you are the one.