Keep Your Eye on the Target

It's been a week for working to overcome setbacks.  Make that two weeks of overcoming setbacks. 

I've been trying to work through a computer software conflict for several months now.  It's been difficult to diagnose with my very limited, self-taught computer skills.  I've got one program that I use frequently that does not want to work on my new laptop.  It works just fine on my old laptop with the same companion software installed.  I decided to take drastic measures, with the help of my husband.  I very carefully backed up everything I could think of to back up and loaded it all back on my older, quirky computer.  Data, software, and licenses all migrated back to the older machine. The hard drive is so crammed that I have to be careful not to have too many programs running simultaneously.  I handed my sparkly new laptop over to my husband who, with the patience of Job, wiped away all evidence of my data and restored it to factory settings.  Then he, painstakingly loaded the offending software.  It didn't work.  He applied a fix the manufacturer had suggested.  It didn't work. He applied a further fix he'd discovered.  EUREKA!!  One program loaded and a couple dozen others to restore.  The computer transfered back to my hands.

With care, and taking notes at each step, I loaded my data back on the laptop from my backup.  The questionable software still worked.  Then, with trembling fingers, I installed the suspected conflict causing culprit.  BAM!  Errors return to my computer screen.  GAH! So close and yet I still don't know how to fix the issue.  Curse you, Microsoft!  I'm going to have to find a geekier geek.  I need a ultra-superior database geek master.  I have a name. I have contact information.  Will he respond?  We'll see.

 

On a more positive side, I had my second swim lesson this week. My swimming skills are only slightly better than those of a dead man.  Even though I walk by a pool several times a week now, finding time to get in an practice has been challenging.  I'm making the effort although I still feel as awkward as a girl at her first dance.  I'm at the practicing baby-steps stage.  Put face in the water? Check.  Breath out through the nose and mouth? Check. Practice breathing out while moving arms as if swimming? Check.  Practice breathing in at appropriate times while moving arms as if swimming? Check.  You get the idea.  This is a creepingly slow learning process for me.

 

My teacher has amazing patience.  She walks with me up and down the pool while I practice gliding and floating.  She talks me through helping my feet find the bottom of the shallow pool when I stop mid-way. (How can 4 feet of water feel so much deeper?) She encourages and coaches me.  It's impossible to not want to do my best even if my best isn't very good right now.  This week, my big, drum-roll worthy accomplishment was managing to get three breaths in while attempting to put all the moves together.  Mind you those three breaths didn't come one after the other but there were three. That's three more than I've ever accomplished in my 50-ish years.  I'm excited.  I know from experience that with practice those three will gradually increase in frequency and ease.

 

About 12 years ago I was a mid-rank Tae Kwon Do student. One of the requirements at our testings was that we break boards with certain techniques at each rank level.  Hand techniques weren't typically a problem.  Foot techniques were much more difficult for me. This particular testing, I had to successfully complete a spinning side kick.  Performed incorrectly, it is a blind technique that rarely works unless you're large enough to force it. I'd practiced and thought I was prepared.  Alas, the adrenaline and nerves that come with testing will make any flaws worse. I attempted the break once. Nothing. Twice. Still no broken board.  We were only allowed three attempts.  I gathered myself as best I could and made my last attempt.  The board was still there, facing me, unbroken.  I was discouraged. My teacher gave me an assignment.  He said I needed to practice the kick 500 times.

 

There are two kinds of practice.  There's 'practice' and 'perfect practice'.  It's not practice that makes perfect, it's perfect practice that makes perfect.  I was practicing on a hanging kicking bag.  It moves in a particular way, with an almost stationary wobble, when a strike is clean.  It swings wildly when the transfer of energy is sloppy.   I set a goal of completing 500 good kicks over a week or two.  Each afternoon, I'd go out and start.  I tried to get in 50 good kicks each day.  I can't tell you how many it took.  I remember that at first I was getting one good strike every 4 or 5 attempts.  I'm sure I was well into the thousands of kicks before I reached 500.  I remember how good the last set of kicks felt. I was able to go back to my teacher and break the board with a sense of satisfaction.

What did I do that made the biggest improvement?  I learned I had to see my target in order to hit it.  I had to change my position so I could see where my foot needed to be. I've used what I learned from that experience many times since.  You are more likely to reach a goal if you can see it.  Measure it.  Touch it.  Fix it in your mind and find the path to reach it. Don't be afraid to ask for help but be a willing and teachable student.

 

If only computers were as easy to understand as swimming.