Curation + Inspiration

Lao Tzu, the Chinese philosopher who authored The Tao Te Ching, wisely reminds us that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

What he failed to mention was that the journey of a thousand miles is completed by taking that same step over and over and over and over and over and over again.

It’s this repetition, The Power of Practice, that is a primary factor separating the masters of their crafts from the mere talented.

For instance, in a pioneering study at Florida State University, psychologist K. Anders Ericsson discovered that the best violinists had accumulated 10,000 hours of practice while the good players had only accumulated 8,000 hours and the least skilled had only accumulated 5,000 hours of practice time.

Malcolm Gladwell further popularized this 10,000 Hours of Practice Rule in his book, Outliers, using the Beatles and Bill Gates as examples.

And when you think of the world’s greatest athletes, artists, writers and thought leaders, they all have put in their practice time, haven’t they? I doubt Lance Armstrong, Yo-Yo Ma, Meryl Streep and Richard Branson are the type to hit their snooze alarms three times every morning!

While talent and desire are definitely ingredients in the recipe of success, practice—and lots of it—is also critical to serving up a winning dish.

Recently, I’ve had the pleasure of working with Bo Eason, an ex-NFL star who went on to pen a critically acclaimed one-person show on Broadway.

In this semi-autobiographical story, Bo shares how he caught a football 1000 times a day, every day for twenty years!

And he admits that, as a young boy, when he’d be outside training in the morning dark with the dew still sparkling on the turf, he’d think about all the other young boys his age who wanted to play in the NFL but were still tucked away in their warm beds literally dreaming about it.

So I guess the question is this:

Are you just dreaming about your dream or are you willing to practice it?

Are you willing to devote a dedicated 10,000 hours of toil, sweat and tears to make your dream happen?

If you practice full-time, it’ll take you about five years to reach mastery. Part-time, it’ll take about 10 years. Part-part-time, putting in only an hour a day or a few hours a week, it could take the rest of your life.

And that’s okay, too. Because Masters know that mastery is a never-ending quest.  The practice never stops.

So if you want to be great, then you must commit. All it takes is that first step on your thousand mile journey. And then another and another and another…

And while today’s VPODs may not make your journey any easier, they do promise to add a touch of glamour to your step.

Any one of these four gorgeous pairs of vintage flapper shoes is a fine choice for a Master Vintage Crusader!

Available at Carolyn Forbes/Textile Resource.

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