Repetition is where artists and athletes meet

Getting good at your craft can be frustrating and rewarding at the same time. Repeating the same movements, learning patterns, dedicating time, money and energy into one thing. That is something that athletes and artists have in common. You can be as talented as you want to. If you are not willing to learn, you will not become great. You will not become exceptional.

Jonas Aufdenblatten (CH) at the European Weightlifting Championships 2024

You wake up one morning in this new reality where you're suddenly more capable than you were before you went to sleep.

"Something strange happens when we practise. For example, when we practise a piece of music, we play it over and over again. It gets a little easier, then more difficult, then easier again. When we sit down to it again a day or two later, it suddenly flows much more naturally. [...] You wake up one morning in this new reality where you're suddenly more capable than you were before you went to sleep."

This excerpt from Rick Rubins "The creative act: a way of being" is about integration. He writes that the cycle of practice phases (active) and recovery phases (passive) leads to versatile growth. During the passive phase, integration takes place of the patterns that we have repeated over and over and over again in an active learning phase.

Repetition is where artists and athletes meet. There is great power in repetition. It is something that is equally important for artists and athletes. Whether you shoot photos, paint pictures, fight other athletes in the ring or throw weights over your head on stage. Everyone experiences this process:

You do thousands of repetitions that are okay

You do hundreds of repetitions that are good

You do a handful of repetitions that are great

You do one repetition that is exceptional

Becoming good at your craft can be frustrating and rewarding at the same time. Repeating the same moves, learning patterns, investing time, money and energy into one thing. This is something that athletes and artists have in common. It takes thousands of repetitions. It takes days, months, years - probably decades - to express yourself through your chosen craft. One day you will realize where these thousands of repetitions have taken you. One day you will be able to do more exceptional repetitions because you have been doing thousands of okay-ish repetitions before that. The key is to keep going, to keep repeating, to keep learning. If you are not willing to learn, you will not become great. You won't become exceptional. As an artist or athlete you dedicate your life to one thing to become the best you have ever been. There is great power in doing the same thing over and over again.

Keep repeating. 

Giulia Imperio (ITA) at the European Weightlifting Championships 2024.