Mindfulness in Practice

Five hundred words a day is one of those exercises that writing gurus and English professors like to promote. The idea behind this is that the more you practice writing a set number of words in a day, the easier it will be in the long run. Sort of like how exercising a muscle makes that muscle stronger, or how coaches condition you to keep your goals at the forefront of your mind. 

But if there’s one reality that needs to become accepted, it’s that practice is hard. Whether there’s a lack of resources or a lack of motivation, sitting down to churn out those five hundred words can slowly become a challenge. The sad thing is that this then becomes a slippery slope to complacency; you missed a day of writing, then you miss a week, and before you know it, coming up with even a page’s worth of text becomes an exercise in futility. 

The mind is a muscle, you could say. The more you practice it, the easier it becomes to use. The less you use it, the slower it becomes. The neurons of your brain slow down. The gray matter atrophies, up until you get to a point when your brain no longer matters at all. But the fact is, it’s just so comfortable to slow down and not take your goals too seriously! The spirit is willing, but the flesh is tired! Living sort of does that to you. You get so caught up in the daily dealings of the rat race that you slowly but surely start to let parts of yourself go. 

And the worst part is, you probably aren’t even noticing it! In your mind, you’re thinking that there are better things, more pressing things, that deserve your attention. The big ticket items, that’s where real progress is. There’s little time to get the smaller things done, so these things slowly get pushed back into the background of the hum of everyday life, and eventually, they become forgotten. 

Take into consideration these two quotes. The first is by Bruce Lee, the master of razor-sharp focus:

“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who had practiced one kick 10,000 times.”

If you keep on practicing your skill, no matter how simple it may seem, it will become easier and easier for you to practice it, up until a point wherein you will have become a master of that skill! It will take time, definitely, but every day of practice will make your mastery of the skill easier and more efficient, so the key here is to make that exercise, that practice, into an everyday thing.

And this second one is from Czernobog in the TV adaptation of American Gods:

“[My hammer is] dull now...the secret of keeping it clean is use...right now my hammer is red with rust.”

Czernobog is an evil Slavic god who has killed ten thousand people with his sledgehammer. The grotesque imagery aside, this constant practice has kept this hammer clean and in perfect condition. With disuse, the hammer has rusted. The same can be said of your skills. The key to keeping yourself sharp is to practice constantly. With disuse, your skills–be it writing, meditation, music, or even crunching numbers–will deteriorate.