Fight 4 Happiness

I have always wanted to do archery. Occasionally at a family outing I have paid a fiver to shoot a few arrows. As part of my continued effort to investment in me and expand my life, I finally booked on to a course.

It is only a short course but you have the option to join the club after you complete it. They are a lovely group of people and I have so enjoyed learning from them. I have benefited from some amazing coaching and whilst I am not sure my aim has improved, I know that those couple of hours a week have created an island of peace and focus in the middle of some taxing days.

This week was bare bow, no sights. I was already getting better at holding my frame and pulling back along my line but a few extra nuggets of gold from my coach this week got me reflecting on life.

Live in the moment and rest there a while…

The first wonderful nugget, Rory (my amazing coach) encouraged me to hold the position for a moment after the arrow was shot. Dropping your bow too quickly can throw the arrow off course.

After the lesson I couldn’t help but think about how we often do the same in life. Rush from one thing to the next. We don’t pause in the moment, don’t celebrate the successes. Life rushes past us and if we move too quickly we miss it.

Every arrow counts…

“Every arrow counts, the next is not affected by the last.” Rory should be a life coach not a bowmen. How genius is this. Of course we can try to find a relationship between the two arrows, perhaps taking a bad stance on the first, affects the second. Maybe the draw is consistently off. But in all reality with every arrow we everything to play for.

I wonder if we manage to approach life like that. If we let go of what’s past and refocus on the opportunities in front of us. If we consider each chance a new.

Focus on the two which hit the mark…

The final major reflection for me. Focus on the two that hit their mark. After a poor first round and a little more coaching I had shot two tidy arrows into the target. Then the third went way off course, straight away I was analysing and drilling myself…why did I miss? I didn’t pull back through the line? I did not loose the arrow smoothly? Rory jumped in and said “Stop! Focus on the two that hit their mark.” I realised he was so right. The two I shot well I had breezed past, not commented on them, nor considered them, the one that missed got all my focus.

We often fall into this trap in life. The focus goes to the failing, to the mistake, to the wrong moment we got it wrong. Don’t get me wrong there is value in understanding where you have gone wrong. But I acknowledged in the car driving home I totally unbalance my focus on the ones that miss. I must in the future pay more attention to the ones that hit the mark.