The Concept IS Grasped, but…
You know, the other night I was channe-surfing and happened to stop for a moment on The Princess Diaries 2, a movie I’ve never seen, but frankly I like Julie Andrews and Anne Hathaway, and I do enjoy a good princess movie (one of the occupational hazards of having a young daughter!). Although I didn’t watch the whole movie, or even most of it, the scene that I did watch had this fabulous interaction between Julie Andrews (the grandmother) and her grandaughter. Grandmother was asking, “When will you grasp this concept?” and the grandaughter’s response was “the concept IS grasped, the execution is a little elusive.” I gotta admit, my heart totally resonated with that sentiment.
At the risk of tooting my own horn, I consider myself to be reasonably bright. I get concepts with relative ease. And, the execution or implementation of these concepts proves a little challenging at times. What I’ve learned over the years is that it’s really important for me to give myself permission to try, fail, and try again (and again, and again, as the case might be). It really is one thing to intellectually understand something. It’s a whole other ballgame to put that same thing into action and practice.
Why am I writing about this? Because I sometimes feel myself get frustrated that I seem to relive the same pattern over, and over, and over again. I hear my internal voice ask, “Have I not learned this lesson yet??” And a quieter voice answers, “yes, it’s learned — just not yet implemented with any sort of polish — so keep at it — it’ll come.” That’s what I gotta remember. And I would invite you to join me in this practicing playground. Come have fun. The execution of anything will become easier as we practice.
