Becoming a BrownGirlBoss: Nurturing Your Craft
When it comes to your talents whether it comes naturally or not, it’s imperative to nurture your craft.The most promising way in doing so is with practice. We have never heard an artist, athlete, scientist or chef go on record saying they don’t practice. I don’t have to tell you that putting in a small dose of love into what you love to do pays off tremendously. I myself am a writer and I write every single day. Nothing has stopped me from practicing, not my full time nor my social life. Trust me when I say, if you really want to strengthen your talent you have to put work into it. I may not write an article everyday, but I compose emails, journal entries, tweets, captions and text messages. I consider all of this practice because I am being mindful, consciously aware of what I am writing and how I am getting my message across, which has allowed me to reap great benefits.
The way that I’ve been successful with practicing my craft started off by balancing myself internally first. What I mean by that is, exercising and most importantly meditation. Think of all the successful individuals who posses superhuman abilities (i.e.Oprah and Beyonce), they owe their success to being balanced human beings. Personally, these rituals allow me to avoid what some call “writers block,” and I put this in quotes because a writer can always manage to write something even if it’s going to be discarded. Now exercising may not be your thing (I suggest at least going for a 20 minute walk), but incorporating some me time where you can be quiet and still without any disruptions will allow you to freely create and develop your craft.
Then comes the tough part making the time because few of us are fortunate to be able to dedicate our entire life to our craft. In these last few months I've been more dedicated than ever before, I’ve gone out less and I’ve written more. As I mentioned before I have a tight schedule, but I prioritize. So instead of watching another episode of Friends use those 30 minutes towards your craft. Remind yourself that every moment spent practicing that yoga pose, learning French for that summer abroad trip or going for a run to prep for that marathon will propel you further into achieving greatness.