Had A Great Day On Sunday

I've been trying to help my daughter learn how to become good at the things she wants to do. After listening to Talent is Overrated (highly recommended!), I gave her a small homework assignment.

I pulled a large excerpt out of Jerry Pournelle's essay, How To Get My Job, and had her read that and then rewrite parts of it substituting the things she wants to do for becoming an author. For example, I took the paragraph below and had her rewrite it substituting getting good grades for being an author.

To be an author, you must first be a writer; and while it's easy to be an author, being a writer is hard work. Surprisingly, it may be only hard work; that is, while some people certainly have more talent for writing than others, everyone has some. The good news is that nearly anyone who wants to badly enough can make some kind of living at writing. The bad news is that wanting to badly enough means being willing to devote the time and work necessary to learn the trade.

I did the same for another passage and playing soccer. The lesson seemed to take, so I had her go on to YouTube and find an instructional soccer video that showed how to do one of the things her coach told her she needed to work on. She picked this video.

Yesterday, she went up to our local handball courts and did 60 or so reps of the exercises recommended in the video on her own. I know for a fact that if she repeats this process even just 10 times, she'll see a big difference in the way she plays and the game will be more fun. She's bought into the process somewhat and now all we need is a little bit of consistency to get the payoff. God willing, the lesson will stick and I'll have a tool to help her with other things in the future.

Life is good.