People are creatures of habit. We repeat our patterns over and over in everything we do. For instance, how I play racquetball is how I live my life. I used to get mad when I was losing and start talking smack, and maybe bang my racquet against something in anger. Well I did that in my life too. When life got difficult, I would lash out at others, and at myself. I often broke objects. And it felt good for a moment to release the anger, but I felt bad about it later on.

When I would return the ball, I would try to hit it hard without much thought as to where it was going, or just try to get it to the wall so I didn’t lose the point. I later wondered, why don’t I hit an unreturnable shot? In my life, why do I coast through it, why don’t I go for victory in every moment? So one day I decided my game was going to be perfect. I hit everyball pretty much perfectly and unreturnable. My aim was nearly flawless. I decided I had endless energy and ran my heart out the entire 4 games. My opponent and friend quickly learned that he cannot hit the ball to me anymore. He has to hit an unreturnable shot or I will. And he stepped his game up to a new level.

I have a pretty good hard serve. When I faulted the serve, I would usually hit it softly so I didn’t double fault. I see tennis players hit it softer on TV all the time. Why am I doing this? In my life, when the pressure is on, I tend to lose my confidence. Not too many people do well under pressure. So I imagined, three times, hitting an ace on the second shot and getting the point. And I hit the ball, even harder than my first shot and got the ace! So now, I hit my second serves harder than the first! And the pressure is now on my competition.

What I am getting at, is everything I do during my day is how I live my life on a miniature scale. For example, how I cut the lawn, wash my hands, take a shower, clean my room, work on the computer, take out the trash, drive in traffic, etc. Now when I do these tasks, or play a game like racquetball, I ask myself over and over, in what way am I doing this which mirrors my life? When I do this I have constant epiphanies, or ah-ha moments. I discover what I am doing and change it right there. If I can change the way I mow the lawn, which is half-assed, maybe I can learn to not live my life half-assed. I can self-discover all day long, everyday, until I am one with the universe. Everything I discovered about me today left me feeling wonderful inside.