Storytelling at Work
May 22, 2020
Practice, Practice, Practice

iStock_59347990_SMALL.jpg

"Practice makes perfect." -- Benjamin Franklin

"Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect." -- Vince Lombardi

"They say that nobody is perfect. Then they tell you practice makes perfect. I wish they'd make up their minds." -- Winston Churchhill

"My father taught me that the only way you can make good at anything is to practice and then practice some more." -- Pete Rose

"As practice makes perfect, I cannot but make progress; each drawing one makes, each study one paints, is a step forward." -- Vincent Van Gogh

"Practice puts brains in your muscles." -- Sam Snead

"An inventor fails 999 times, and if he succeeds once, he's in. He treats his failures simply as practice shots." -- Charles Kettering

"I've always considered myself to be just average talent and what I have is a ridiculous insane obsessiveness for practice and preparation." -- Will Smith

"Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired." -- Martha Graham

"One does not need buildings, money, power, or status to practice the Art of Peace. Heaven is right where you are standing, and that is the place to train." -- Morihei Ueshiba

"My writing practice taught me the important thing is steadfastness. It's not necessarily discipline. Discipline can become a prison. When your spiritual practices become another thing for you to be anxious about, they've lost their usefulness." -- Elizabeth Gilbert

"I find it's only when something is trying to come through I really practice. And then, I don't know how many hours. It's all day." -- John Coltrane

"The real meditation practice is how we live our lives from moment to moment to moment." -- Jon Kabat-Zinn

"Whether you're shuffling a deck of cards or holding your breath, magic is pretty simple: It comes down to training, practice, and experimentation, followed up by ridiculous pursuit and relentless perseverance." -- David Blaine

"If I don't practice one day, I know it; two days, the critics know it; three days, the public knows it." -- Jascha Heifetz

"When I'm home on a break, I lock myself in my room and play guitar. After two or three hours, I start getting into this total meditation. It's a feeling few people experience, and that's usually when I come up with weird stuff. It just flows. I can't force myself. I don't sit down and say I've got to practice." -- Eddie Van Halen

"To handle a language skillfully is to practice a kind of evocative sorcery." -- Charles Baudelaire

"In my mind's eye, I visualize how a particular... sight and feeling will appear on a print. If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph. It is an intuitive sense, an ability that comes from a lot of practice." -- Ansel Adams

"Ask yourself the secret of your success. Listen to your answer, and practice it." -- Richard Bach

"Freedom is not given to us by anyone; we have to cultivate it ourselves. It is a daily practice... No one can prevent you from being aware of each step you take or each breath in and breath out." -- Thich Nhat Hanh

"In the end, it's about the teaching, and what I always loved about coaching was the practices. Not the games, not the tournaments, not the alumni stuff. But teaching the players during practice was what coaching was all about to me." -- John Wooden

"One cannot practice many arts with success." -- Plato

"I could never sit in a room and just play all by myself. I needed to play for people and all the time. You can say I practiced in public." -- Bob Dylan

"It helps to remember that our spiritual practice is not about accomplishing anything -- not about winning or losing, but about ceasing to struggle and relaxing as it is." -- Pema Chodron

"The key in letting go is practice. Each time we let go, we disentangle ourselves from our expectations and begin to experience things as they are." -- Sharon Salzberg

"Talent is only a starting point." -- Irving Berlin

"Mere philosophy will not satisfy us. We cannot reach the goal by mere words alone. Without practice, nothing can be achieved." -- Swami Satchidananda

"What I have achieved by industry and practice, anyone else with tolerable natural gift and ability can also achieve." -- J. S. Bach

"An ounce of practice is generally worth more than a ton of theory." -- E.F. Schumacher

"Champions keep playing until they get it right." -- Billie Jean King

"It is a mistake to think that the practice of my art has become easy to me. I assure you, dear friend, no one has given so much care to the study of composition as I. There is scarcely a famous master in music whose works I have not frequently and diligently studied." -- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

"Don't only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets; art deserves that, for it and knowledge can raise man to the Divine". -- Ludwig van Beethoven

"You don't need to justify your love, you don't need to explain your love, you just need to practice your love. Practice creates the master." -- Don Miguel Ruiz

"My secret is practice." -- David Beckham

"I know you've heard it a thousand times before. But it's true -- hard work pays off. If you want to be good, you have to practice, practice, practice. If you don't love something, then don't do it." -- Ray Bradbury

"Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice." -- Anton Chekhov

"For every pass I caught in a game, I caught a thousand in practice." -- Don Hutson

"After a long time of practicing, our work will become natural, skillful, swift, and steady." -- Bruce Lee

"We learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same. One becomes in some area an athlete of God." -- Martha Graham

"For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them." -- Aristotle

"You can't hire someone to practice for you." -- H. Jackson Brown Jr.

"The only way a kid is going to practice is if its total fun for him... and it was for me." -- Wayne Gretzky

"I don't know if I practiced more than anybody, but I sure practiced enough. I still wonder if somebody, somewhere, was practicing more than me." -- Larry Bird

"You are what you practice." -- Prem Rawat

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at May 22, 2020 11:58 AM

Post a comment

Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)


Remember me?


ABOUT THE BLOG

Storytelling at Work is a blog about the power of personal storytelling – why it matters and what you can do to more effectively communicate your stories – on or off the job. Inspired by the book of the same name, the blog features "moment of truth" stories by the author, Mitch Ditkoff, plus inspired rants, quotes, and guest submissions by readers.

Order the book:

Storytelling for the Revolution
Storytelling for the Revolution is Mitch Ditkoff's newly published book about the power of personal storytelling to elevate the conversation on planet Earth. Provocative. Evocative. And fun. YOU have stories to tell. This book will help you tell them.
Storytelling at Work
"The world is not made of atoms," wrote the poet, Muriel Rukeyser. "It's made of stories." Learn how to discover, honor, and unpack the stories of yours that show up "on the job" in Mitch Ditkoff's award-winning 2015 book, Storytelling at Work.
FAQ
Do you want to know more about the book before buying it? Click here for Mitch's response to frequently asked questions about Storytelling at Work – the perfect book for people who think they have no time to read.
The Workshop
Storytelling is an "unconscious competency" – an ability we all have that all too often remains inaccessible to us. Enter the Storytelling at Work workshop – a simple way to activate this powerful, innate skill.
Wisdom Circles
Want to establish a culture of storytelling in your organization or community? Looking for a simple way to help people to share their meaningful, memorable stories with each other? Here's how.
Podcasts & Videos
Click here to view and listen to a series of interviews with the author of this blog. Go beyond the written word. Listen. Feel. Elevate the conversation. Understand what the big deal is about personal storytelling.
Blogs 'R Us
If you like this blog, you might also like Mitch's other two blogs: The Heart of Innovation and The Heart of the Matter. Mitch is also a regular contributor to the Huffington Post.
Idea Champions
When Mitch isn't writing, he's captaining the good ship Idea Champions, a leading edge innovation consulting and training company based in Woodstock, NY. What their clients say.
© IDEA CHAMPIONS