“The Knowing of What You Can Do”
Have you ever been consistently doing a practice? Cooking, Artwork, Exercise, Meditation, Yoga?
Did you notice that after several months to years of focus you felt a sense of inner confidence that seemed to be tied to this practice?
That’s what I call “Practice Certainty” ‘The knowing of what you can do’.
What is a Practice?
My definition is: “A practice is an action, regularly repeated in a skillful manner”.
If you meditated once, it was an action.
If you meditated every day for a week, it would be a routine.
If you meditated regularly enough that you could start to deepen the practice, it would be a practice.
I would go one step further and theorise that the schedule isn’t important but the neural pathways strength is.
If you practice often enough that it builds the neural pathway rather than just maintaining it, you’re are participating in a practice.
Practice is the path of mastery.
How does a Practice effect “Certainty”?
A practice is one of the most effective ways to build your certainty.
In the moment you get the boost from the “Action Certainty” (knowing what you are doing).
Outside of the action, you actually feel a boost to your overall Certainty that comes from ‘knowing what you can do’.
What are the benefits of Certainty again?
Clarity, Confidence, Drive, Momentum, Direction, Purpose, Meaning.
These are the key words linked to Certainty.
High Certainty is a state we all naturally desire to be in.
Example: When you’re out in public waiting for food or a friend, you often pull out your phone right?
Most of the time this is to avoid looking awkward. And what is awkwardness? Uncertainty!
When it is the evening and you don’t know what to do, you do your go to action (tv, music, phone).
…You sought out certainty.
That doesn’t make certainty sound so great right?
That’s only because you were low in certainty so you tried to increase it quickly (the path of least resistance).
When you are in a high certainty state you feel driven, confident, clear, feel like things are progressing.
The more we can increase our “Overall Certainty” the more we can take on low certainty tasks/actions.
That means the more ability we have to learn.
Success and Certainty?
If you’ve noticed, most successful people seem to have a practice in their life; meditation, exercise, etc.
They may not even realise the underlying mechanics of this, but it’s certainty working to their advantage.
The more things we can have anchoring our overall certainty to a high level, the more we can take on low certainty tasks.
Aka. The more we can learn, the more we can put ourselves in uncomfortable spaces.
How to harness Practice Certainty?
Any practice that combines Mind, Body, Spirit will provide the best results.
Examples of this include:
Yoga
Meditation
Martial Arts
When you have a practice that requires physical movements in a specific sequence but also has room for growth you have a powerful asset to increase your practice/overall certainty.
I’ve felt the benefits of Kung Fu last hours to days after participating.
This gave me plenty of certainty to use with complex tasks.
Certainty Resistance Zones
As you can see above complete certainty is the equivalent to our comfort zone.
It’s a nice place to be in…but not for too long! (It gets a bit stagnant there, and without challenging our selves we begin to regress).
Conversely pushing ourselves until we reach full resistance and uncertainty is uncomfortable but can be a necessary part of growth at times.
If you’re interested in this topic, send me DM on insta and “join the flow” 👉