As a biased and proud father, I am always amazed by the grace and beauty of Alec’s cartwheels. He extends to his full length and performs the feat with more skill than I have ever achieved. It is no wonder. He has been doing cartwheels now for half of his life. He does them every day and everywhere. In truth, I would be concerned if he was not good at doing them by now.
A few weeks ago, his cartwheels started looking bad. He didn’t look comfortable. He was going faster with less control, not straightening his legs, and not sticking a clean landing. When I asked him what was going on, he informed me that his gymnastics coach wanted him to do cartwheels leading off with his other hand. He knew this task was challenging, and he was becoming frustrated with his performance. Whereas a normal cartwheel was natural to him, this change made it awkward and ugly. It is when he is most frustrated that he states that he can’t do it. There is only one reply I can give for encouragement, “Keep practicing.”
Practice, the master of all things. –Augustus Octavius
After reading the lengthy but very informative article, “How to Configure Your iPhone to Work for You, Not Against You,” I took the advice of step #15 and installed the G Board for faster typing. In the beginning I made all kinds of mistakes and my messaging speed was cut in half. Learning to type with the swipe method seemed an impossible and pointless task. But a few weeks later and countless keying of the letter “L” (right above the delete button), I am now faster than I was before.
…but if a thing is humanly possible, consider it to be in your reach. –Marcus Aurelius
Aurelius probably wasn’t thinking in such low terms as changing over to a G Board for faster messaging. But then again, who is to say he didn’t apply this line of thought to all difficult tasks regardless of enormity. This is a person whose advice was to practice with the left hand. Using your off hand more efficiently may not produce a radical change in your life, but getting better at practicing will. If you want to get better in any area, you practice.
Remember all the things that seemed impossible in the past:
Enormous feats that at one time began in the imagination. Compare that to the much smaller things we imagine that seem so daunting:
All those things that seem out of reach to us, and yet are possible. Through practice.
Practice even what seems impossible. The left hand is useless at almost everything, for lack of practice. But it guides the reins better than the right. From practice. –Marcus Aurelius
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