20/20

Over coffee a friend shared about how her yoga practice has developed and shifted — in my own words — to another level of maturity, when a studio approached her for specific classes that require practitioners with some years of experience. Which basically means to be a senior instructor. She said, not without her usual gratitude and humility, that all these come naturally after years of consistent practice.

On my way home I recounted when we first met she wasn’t even a sporty or active person to begin with, and needless to say yoga was completely not in the picture. And that was at least 8 years ago. I also recalled reading about mastering a skill takes 1,000 hours which roughly works out to be 2.5 years. If you were to start on a new hobby or skill etc, and be told to continue practicing for at least 2-3 years before seeing results, I am sure most of us (who cannot live in delayed gratification) would deem it too long-drawn, and might simply fall out halfway. And so for 8 years to bear fruits, to no longer have that imposter syndrome and to honestly know what one is doing on (and off) the mat, is definitely very legit.

But my biggest takeaway, or inspiration, was how those 8+ years were committed into consistent practice. As her close friend, we’ve all long regarded yoga practice as part of her life, not just a hobby or skill. And how quickly those years passed! In the same exact speed that time would move for any one of us, whether or not we are consistently doing anything at all.

As they say, hindsight is always 20/20, and so it made perfect sense when we look back at those 8 years of consistency for fruits of today. But very few people mention that in order to have hindsight one must first run the trails, or climb those rungs of ladder, to be far or high enough to gain a point of view called retrospection. Until then, we are just working on tiny and seemingly mundane elements of a much larger tapestry that would only come into our full view when enough time (and hard work) has been committed.