The moment it all made sense

Have you ever practiced a free throw? Or a six-foot putt? There are the things in sport that look so easy, but when you stand under the hoop or over the ball, a universe of possibility opens up. And most of those possibilities result in misses. 

It seems so easy to repeat a simple action to shoot a ball a short distance, until you realize you’re an organism full of hinges, pulsing with every heartbeat, while thousands of neurons fire like gunpowder in mere fractions of seconds. You let a ball fly in 3D space, affected by the elements, set off course by even the tiniest movements of your fingers. One shot might be close, and another might be way off course, and you won’t know why because you didn’t try to change anything. 

A free throw and a six-foot putt seem easy. But for anyone who has tried them for the first time, they know they’re not. 

For the creative professional, there are things in this business that seem so easy, like making a quote, or giving a pitch, or networking at a party. They’re essential for anyone who does this. But when the blinking cursor stares back at you, or when you finally get on the phone, or when you shake someone’s hand, you quickly realize: it’s not easy. There are a thousand ways this could go. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and you don’t know why because you didn’t try to change anything. 

For anyone who has spent a while practicing a free throw, or a six-foot putt, you can remember the moment. The moment when it all made sense. When your eyes locked on the back the rim, or the back of the hole, and you felt a magnetic connection with it. Everything else faded away, and you knew in that moment you couldn’t miss. The pressure may have been on, the wind may have been blowing, you may have been on a hill. But it didn’t matter. You locked in on the target, and let the hinges swing, the neurons fire, and your fingertips adjust ever so slightly. 

This moment will come for you, too, creative professional. It will take a lot of misses. It’ll take a lot of hits. It’ll take reading, and practice, and adjustments. But soon enough, you’ll make a great impression, woo the client, and win the pitch, and the whole time you’ll be thinking, I can’t miss.