As many of you know, I am a second degree black belt in taekwondo. Each week, my instructor puts up a Quote of the Week. This week’s quote is this Chinese proverb:
Do not be afraid of slow growth, be afraid of no growth.
If it wasn’t for the pain and, you know, all the social backlash, I think I’d have this tattooed on my head these days!
I don’t care what my fellow Mig Andrea says, I must be the slowest full-time writer in the world. (A writer who doesn’t actually write. Very sad, very sad.) I plod along while everyone around me manages to pump out pages and pages. It’s agonizing sometimes.
I’m the slowest in my taekwondo class too. You know the ol’ lady who’s two laps behind everyone else during warmups? That’s me. And I’m always the last one to finish any drill. It used to bug me like crazy but then I made some self-depreciating comment about being so slow. And guess what. My instructor praised me in the middle of the class for it! He said being last just meant I was taking my time to get it right. (Being slow doesn't help when I'm sparring but I took the compliment in the spirit it was given. Besides, I wasn't about to disagree with a 6th degree black belt. My mama didn't raise a stupid kid.)
For the next week, I’m going to try to take the lesson in the quote to heart. I may be slow and plodding along, but at least I’m out there, giving it my best shot. And that’s better than standing still.
Yay!! Thank you for this! I'm halfway to black belt myself, and I too am the one who always holds up the line during sprints, etc. I purposefully don't test every cycle, but take the time to learn it right before I test. And sometimes it doesn't matter how many times I go, I just can't remember my form even though they just taught it to me five times in the past five classes.
ReplyDeleteI'm also the writer who doesn't write. Well, that's not exactly true. I write all kinds of things, but none of them are exactly useful. Well, wait. They are useful to someone -- like to the person I'm writing the email or comment to. But they are not bringing in any money.
Maybe tattoo it on your wrist. You can see it better there, anyway. :) Maybe in Korean, so it's not so obvious to everyone else. But highly personal to you. :)
Car, I love this quote! I also sometimes think that the "thinking" part of writing doesn't get enough credit. I'll bet that your brain is working on your piece, even when your fingers aren't.
ReplyDeleteClickerbug, I'm so glad you pointed out that there are all different kinds of writing besides writing a story. I find I'm slow at writing other things too - blog posts, journal entries -- except for the lists of things to do that smother my desk. I think I just like to think things through thoroughly. Maybe you do too?
I'm in love with this post. I'm going to take that quote and put it everywhere in my house. I get so anxious feeling like I should have things done NOW, but I need to remember that isn't necessary.
ReplyDeleteThe other day one of my kids was daydreaming in class. I had to tell him he couldn't daydream at this MOMENT since he was supposed to learn how to read at this moment. But then I did a little mini-lesson on the power of daydreaming. I think my students thought I was a little weird, but then when don't they?
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