To Professionally Write:  The Power in Precision
K. Wordbird Bate   The Writer's Life Coach

     Imagine a professional ice skater, Katy.

     When she first blasts out onto the rink, hoping to become a skater, Katy is filled with the sheer joy of movement and balance. Turns, twists, the sounds of skates on ice, the new sense of freedom!

     She glances over at the professional skaters-the same jump over and over. Such a waste of time! Too focused on the small stuff. All that repetition: how to tie your skates, types of ice, posture, a wave of the hand-it boggles and bores the mind! Who cares! Katy wants to spin and glide!  She's filled with excitement and the bliss of expression. She's a skater! Look out, world!

     She skates and skates. A week. A month. Two years. Katy wants to be better and better, to stretch higher. So comes a time of many falls, and hours of practice, discipline, fatigue and hard work. And still, such happiness. It presses her forward. She begins to master details. She achieves some precision. She becomes aware of the deep and vast world she didn't realize existed. She sometimes sees the new skaters flying around the ice, carefree, excited. She smiles at them.  

Excellence is not a singular act, but a habit. You are what you repeatedly do.

                                                                                                            ~Shaquille O'Neal

     Katy speeds onto the ice one day, and takes up her practice position.  As she moves, she feels something entirely new. She's not working at details and precision. They flow from her naturally, as part of her. Today she IS the precision itself, the master, an instrument of all her experience. She is able to call on the detailed skills she has mastered to create, design, explore, to seek new heights. She has new beauty, new potential. People watching her skate can see and feel this new difference.

     From here, she can go places.  She may skate for her own enjoyment, teach, compete, or become an ice clown! She may move to Greenland, buy a sheep farm and skate in her own backyard, under the moonlight. Whatever she likes. She is master of her passion. She can direct its path.  

     The same is true for you. You may see the details and practice of writing-whether grammar, revisions, page layout or research-as drudge you shouldn't have to do.  "I'm not good at this," you might say. "Someone else should do this for me." You know what? That's a choice! Pay someone to do the precision work for you.  You can choose not to do the work required to master writing.  You can simply enjoy your talent as it is. Many, many people do this. They still blast around the writing page, and enjoy themselves completely. They never learn to tap into and "use the Force, Luke." All masters of all endeavors tap into the Force. But that takes hard work. It's okay to choose something else. You are the master of your life and its choices. 

     If you choose to do the work to achieve great skill? You can and will learn to sculpt a sentence, air brush a paragraph, and elicit awe in an audience, by using details and making select choices. Those are the foundation, like strong ankles and good laces, of the phenomenal word dance you will create. With mastery of precision, you bring grace, balance, and control to your creation. You will not blast around; you will soar.  

(If that's what you want.)

Let Yourself Bloom.

© Kimberly Bate