The Tao of Practice

This year I seek to break
My habit to focus on fear
Of failure
Or of being wrong.

Instead a mental shift
From success and failure,
To practice.

Too many worthy tasks
Have I abandoned or failed even to start.
Feeling intimidation --
That fear of failure
Or of Being Wrong.

I need to build resiliance
When surprised at work
With a task I feel no clue
About how even to begin.

I need to exercise:
Flexibility when my expectations are not met.
Kindness when I feel provoked.
Curiosity when I enter unknown territory.
One more little push when I hesitate to begin.

I failed.
I was wrong.

Practice, not success
Is what I must hang on to.

I failed and that was good practice
To gain the next step towards success.

I was wrong and that was good practice
To learn what I did not know.

Now my way, my tao,
As I pick up each thing worth doing,
Is to let go of success or failure,
And practice.


	24 August 2017
	by Bill Cattey