When I was choosing One Little Word at the end of December, I had 3 options – keep “pursue” for another year to push me to try more new things, “purposeful” to slow down and think about my choices, and “practice”. I love the word “practice” as it applies to MANY things. I think it was in Real Happiness when I first came to understand that “practice” is just that – it doesn’t have to be perfect, but showing up and doing the work can be enough.

What does this look like? Well, with meditation, just practicing it is going to make you better. But not being “good” at it is okay, too. It’s the routine of sitting still, working on clearing your mind, letting yourself be okay with the fact that your mind wandered AGAIN – that is the benefit of doing meditation.

And exercise. I’m not going to be a marathon runner, and I might not even ever be a runner again, but if I think of working out my body as practice, it can be a lot of different things to get my body moving and getting stronger.

And creating. Whether sewing something scary or trying out a new piece of jewelry, it’s just practice. If something doesn’t turn out perfectly, it’s just another chance to try again.

So to me, “practice” gives me a lot of grace in whatever I’m attempting. And it takes a lot of the pressure off. If something doesn’t go quite right, it’s not failing, it’s just another chance to practice. (And I don’t need to be perfect anyway.) So I’m really liking this word. Is it too soon to choose my One Little Word for 2014?

So I’m practicing jewelry this week. I got this really cool tool in the mail that I’m excited to try out. It’s called a cup bur, and you use it on jewelry wire to smooth out the ends.

See, I’m having a hard time finding ear wires I like. Most of the ones I’ve found online have extra decorations on them that I just don’t need. Simple is better for me.

These are close to what I’m looking for. For some reason, I have one of each in my jewelry supplies. Can’t make a pair with them but I can’t bring myself to toss them. And I can’t find others that are quite the same, so I’m using them as a model to make my own.

I’ve never made my own wires before, but the videos I found online make it look easy.

My first attempts were not so great, but instead of getting discouraged, I told myself I was just practicing, and I kept going. I didn’t think, I’m wasting wire, It’s taking too long to figure this out, Mine just don’t look like they’re supposed to look. Instead, I reminded myself that I needed to use up some materials to practice and that it would just take time. It was so freeing to see it in a different light. (And of course, I could always practice while watching Downton Abbey.)

So I just kept going. And of course, after practicing, it got easier, and they started looking better, too. (See those last 3 on the end? Pretty good, I’d say. Not perfect, but not bad.)

What about you? Does the idea of practicing make things seem a little easier? What do you need to “practice” right now?

————————————————————————————————

This post is part of a 31 Day series about improving my days by being more PURPOSEFUL.

You can read more about it here. You can find all the posts in this series here.