Let’s talk about why we practice. Practice is an important part of learning. If we don’t practice we start to forget what we learned. If we forget the things that have been taught to us then we need to have them taught to us again and again and again. If we are always repeating the same lessons we’ll never get to the point where we’ll be ready to test our next rank. We won’t learn how to set goals and then follow through to achieve those goals. Without practice everything kind of breaks down.

Let me tell you the story of Silly and Sally. Silly and Sally started learning karate around the same time. Silly was VERY talented, everything her instructor taught her she picked up easily. Every challenge was soon conquered. Sally wasn’t bad, but she wasn’t great either. She took longer to learn everything and she struggled with every challenge. As time went on Silly easily earned her Yellow Belt, then her Orange Belt, and was getting ready to test for her Purple Belt. Sally struggled to earn her Yellow Belt, she struggled even more with her Orange Belt.

One day in class Sensei talked about practicing at home. He told all his students that practicing at home was so important. That if they started practicing a little bit every day that they would get better and better and in no time they could be the best karate students they can be. Silly thought that was silly, she was already the best. She knew everything, and she beat every challenge. She didn’t need to practice. Sally thought practicing at home was a great idea. She almost always remembered the lessons from class the next day, and Sensei said it was only for a few minutes a day. She was going to start practicing a little every day.

As the students prepared for their tests Sally felt better about her techniques. She started remembering all the things she needed to learn for her test. Silly thought she was good too. On the day of the test Sally was ready. She was able to demonstrate all of her White Belt, Yellow Belt, and Orange Belt techniques and pass her test for Purple Belt. Silly remembered some of her White Belt techniques, almost none of her Yellow Belt techniques, and most of her Orange Belt techniques. Silly didn’t pass her test.

Silly didn’t pass her test because she didn’t practice. Though she may have been naturally talented, that talent only brought her so far before her lack of practice started to show. Just like in school, your homework is practice. When you play your video game and you get to a challenging part that you can’t beat right away, every attempt you make is a little bit of practice. Every other skill that you learn needs to be practiced a little bit. It’s kind of silly to let something like not practicing get in the way of not achieving your goals. Be like Sally and practice, don’t be silly.