The most amazing thing happened this week. I delivered one of the best talks of my career thus far. What made it so remarkable in my eyes was the preparation that I put in before hand. For a couple of weeks I rehearsed and re-rehearsed my speech committing it to memory – bible verses and all. By no means was my talk perfect, but the victory was in the delivery. I literally felt as though I had moved out of God’s way and given Him free reign to work.
Have you every seen an artist exhibit his or her talent and it look so easy? What about the athlete whose every motion appears to be harmonious with the game he/she plays. In every case these “performers”, no matter their profession, make it look effortless. But, is it? What we rarely see are the hours upon hours of effective training and practice and rehearsals that the performer puts in while we are busy living our lives. We do not see the dozens of mistakes that are corrected and the trials and missteps that begin to falter over time. The performer puts in the work to commit to muscle memory the performance of his/her dreams. What we see as the spectator is the beautiful artistic result.
Performers have a vision for what they want they want the world to see, so they dedicate themselves to making that happen. They have learned that the “magic” does not “just happen” nor does it happen over night. Moreover, they know that their vision of an outstanding performance will not become reality unless they make it so by practicing time and time again until their body, their voice, their hands, their legs have been trained to execute the desired response “naturally”. That, my friends is preparation. So many of us want to be great at something. Or, maybe you do not want to be great; maybe you just want to get through the board meeting, presentation, or conversation without embarrassing yourself. Well, it’s very possible that you will not just get the result that you want by chance. You may actually need to make it happen and you do so by preparing yourself. Taking the time to rehearse or practice for a talk or presentation liberates you. It significantly increases the chance of you getting the results (from yourself) that you want. You cannot always guarantee the response of your audience, but you will at least have done what you desired to.
As an athlete, I understood the value of training and training effectively. I won’t lie; I hated going to practice most days. It was physically exhausting, it was painful at times, it could feel mundane, and it demanded so much of my time (time that I would have loved to spend doing other things). But, there was no way that I could accomplish the goals that I wanted to without it.
I have given talks in the past that were well received, but there was far more reward, because of the time I took to prepare. With more preparation I could choose to worry less about not remembering the points that I needed to make. I did not have to depend on my written notes (I do not have the luxury of a teleprompter (not at all a jab at President Obama)). I could rest assure knowing that at that point I had done all that I could and the rest was in the hands of God. Some Believers think that it is when you are spontaneous that the Holy Spirit is working through you. As for me, I can flow with God when I am prepared. When you take the time to prepare, you set your mind at ease. You can get out of your own way and allow God to work. And, your audience will notice. Instead of thinking about everything that I should have done leading up to that moment I could choose to review all that I had gone over. I was not anxious about trying to get it right; my focus was on how to make it better. All I need to do was execute.
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. (1 Corinthians 9:24 - 27)
(Excerpt from “Still Going Pro…” Coming Soon)
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