I have had an uneven tennis season.
I started back to the sport at the end of February and benefited from being in Atlanta, a tennis mecca if there ever was one. I had lost most of my tennis friends when I moved away shortly before the pandemic, but I worked my way up to playing five or six days a week through a combination of clinics, flex league matches, and casual play with friends and family.
Read MoreI never enjoyed cooking very much because I always had the vague sense that I didn’t know what I was doing.
Even though I spent years working in commercial kitchens, I didn’t have much of an awareness of knife technique or other aspects of food preparation. Therefore, I was intimidated by recipes. I stuck to routine meals that I could figure out through trial and error.
Read MoreA friend’s infant is learning to creep.
Engaging every muscle he can, he propels his body along the floor to reach a toy, encouraged by both of his parents. The strain shows on his face and can be heard in his grunts and cries.
And then, just as he is about to reach the toy, his father nudges it a few inches back.
Read MoreI’m a guitarist, but not a very accomplished one.
The complexity of electric lead guitar has always eluded me. I didn’t take to it naturally or quickly, and I never found anyone who was able to help me take my skills to the next level.
For years, I thought that if I just worked hard enough, I could play lead. That would have been especially notable in the days when it seemed like you could count on one hand the number of female lead guitarists in history. I wanted to be one of them.
Read MoreIt’s a weird thing to be cast in the role of naysayer on someone’s journey to greatness.
I believe that people can achieve great things if they have the belief in their ability to do so and a strong plan to back it up.
However, having only the belief isn’t always enough. The enthusiasm and motivation will peter out with repeated exposure to hardship if a person isn’t prepared for that.
As a teacher and coach, I’ve sometimes been the one to suggest that someone modify their plan or pursue an incremental goal on the way to the massive, ground-breaking, world-shaking achievement they are seeking. These suggestions are not always welcome. My character is definitely not making it to the second act when this story is turned into a movie.
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