The phrase ‘practice makes perfect’ is a phrase we have probably all heard at some point in our lives and at some point something most people have attempted to initiate. I remember practicing jump shots every night in high school to try and make the varsity basketball team. As we grow older though it’s funny how the definition of that word changes. This week is the first of 8 weeks in which I am engaging in ‘practicing’ the art of chiropractic at a clinic near Omaha Nebraska. It is liberating to be ‘practicing’ the one thing I have worked so passionately towards, however this time I am do it with the caveat that there is no way this will help me make the high school basketball team.
Gabby the sorcerer and Dr. Lance Armstrong in Fremont Chiro Clinic
Thus I am left pondering the word ‘practice’ and how this applies to life. Regardless of what we are doing if we strive for perfection, and expect perfection we are often left feeling disappointed that perhaps ‘my best’ may not have been good enough. I propose that as long as we are doing what we love, in an ethical and effective way, and making a conscious choice to impact others, then we are indeed making life better for not only ourselves but those we choose to be surrounded with.
The challenge I issue to you today is to live a life of practice, in which you seek to improve the lives of those around you. As a high school basketball player, you can’t expect to make every jump shot or be Michael Jordan every night, just as a Chiropractor cannot make everyone’s life perfect who presents with a subluxation… but we can certainly strive to do our best and make life better for those around us. I challenge the thought that it’s a job or privilege we are given as a human to help others, instead I suggest that it is our duty as human beings to each day attempt to improve as many lives as possible. Mary Oliver says it best: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
Please feel free to leave a comment or start a discussion on what it is you are doing with you one precious and wild life.
Tags: Service
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