I really want to play the guitar well. However, it turns out that a large amount of practice is necessary to do so. Same thing seems to be true for basketball, soccer, the recorder, and ballroom dancing, all of which I have tried to some extent or another in my short life thus far.
Practice is what makes us better. I think that this is the principle that business school is oriented around. I am thankful for the opportunity to practice accounting before anyone expects me to do anything accounting-adjacent (if you talk to Dr. Stanley, he’ll tell you that accounting-adjacent is as close as I need to come). The more practice problems I do in accounting, the better I do on the exam. The same thing goes with statistics, finance, economics, strategy, the class with the professor obsessed with Disney, the other class with the professor who likes going to Africa and having a positive impact on the world…
That’s what has made me better as a preacher, although I wouldn’t argue that I’m very good yet. Instead, we will just agree that I’m better than I was the first time – it’s because every week I have the opportunity to go speak in front of people. The times I get to rehearse this extensively seem to go better than the times I don’t. Either way, I feel more comfortable as a communicator now than I did before.
This blog is a way to get practice writing for the future, in the same way my personal blog was practice for this one. And in much the same way that doctors and lawyers continue to practice after getting degrees, I imagine that preaching and writing will continue to be skills I continue to practice, but to these skills I’ve been able to learn to practice business-related skills.
Can you imagine going to school for that long, and still having what you do be called practice? No matter how good you are, there’s always room for more practice.
That goes for accounting too, maybe.