“All progress is practice, and all practice is progress.”

—Robert Louis Stevenson, 19th Century essayist, poet and author

Image from Unsplash by Kaja Kadlecova

Progress rarely arrives with applause. More often, it looks like one more conversation with greater patience, one more walk taken when motivation is low, one more attempt after an awkward beginning.

We tend to treat practice as the space before progress: the repetitive, unglamorous work we must endure to get somewhere meaningful.

But what if practice is progress? Every repetition strengthens a skill, a habit, a relationship, or a belief about what is possible.

• • The imperfect draft is progress.
  • The difficult apology is progress.
  • The ten minutes of movement, the listening pause, the choice to begin again.

  Each count!

  EXERCISE:
  In what ways can you choose practice over performance? How can the small, faithful actions you repeat daily become evidence of your growth?