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Dec 26, 2004 :: The Monk's Monday Lesson #3
Balancing Act
(A side note from Samm’s Side Pocket)
Unless you are a professional in this game, most of you probably have other priorities in your life. Let’s face it. Even the pros have other responsibilities outside of just practicing. Whether it’s a full time job, a family, pets, or hobbies, there is always something else that seems to take precedence.
So, how do you juggle and balance all these things? How do you prioritize your practice time between all the tasks in your life?
Unfortunately, there is no simple answer for this one. The first step is to determine for yourself, as The Monk has asked us to do in the past, what your purpose is. Defining what your purpose is with this game means knowing what you want to accomplish and understanding what that means to you.
Once you recognize what your purpose is, you can go from there. If your goal is to become a professional pool player, obviously, practicing becomes more of a priority to you than if your goal is to become the top shooter in your league. Therefore, practicing would be much higher in your food chain.
Like you, I too have other responsibilities. I balance my family, my business and my training. Before I identified what my purpose was, I would work on tasks in blocks at a time. I would spend a day or two working on projects until they were completed, leaving me too exhausted to practice by the end of the day.
Sometimes, I would go for a days at a time without practicing because I was so intent on finishing what I was working on.
I now understand the importance of practicing and the effects it has on my performance. Although running a business is a full time job, I also consider my training to be a full time job. I enjoy both, but must view them equally as important. And, as any full time job, there is discipline required. You would never show up to work late or not at all and just tell your employer that you didn’t have time to work, would you?
At this point, I have a fairly consistent practice regimen. It was difficult for me to make the transition, but it had to be done. I now drop what I’m doing when it comes time for my daily practice session and just practice. Of course, it takes time to overcome that initial preoccupation with what I may have been working on. It often takes me a couple racks of stop shots before I am able to fully immerse myself into my practice. However, at least I know I will practice every ingle day. Unless there is a time sensitive task to complete, what I was working on will still be there tomorrow.
So, decide for yourself what your goal is with this game and determine where practicing falls in your food chain. It can be a balancing act to manage all the responsibilities in your life, but you will definitely reap the benefits from knowing your purpose and prioritizing your practice.
