Preparation is the Mother of skill. Understanding is the father of skill. We all love to win, but who loves to train? With all the variations of those quotes that I have used over the years so many times and in so many ways. I still act and genuinely feel that my own advice is fresh meat that I bite into as if it were freshly slaughtered new meat to survive. In fact, I’m like a rabid wolf chewing on reality when it comes to what counts. I called this article the training because reality is mostly preparation, and the actual action compared to that training isn’t much compared to the training it takes to take the genuinely winning actions.

I remember the “Rocky” movies (yes, the “Rocky” movies with Sylvester Stallone), every last one of them, including the “Creed” movies so far. Most of the movies, as you will astutely note, are not about the fight, most of those movies are about the preparation, the training and the drama, actually very little of winning when you really think about them realistically. So, that brings me to a point: The reality that is won and successful depends largely on your preparation to handle it. Think of a singer like Susan Boyle, as a better example than the example from the movie “Rocky”: She spent at least thirty years in the making, singing in her bathroom mirror and in small salons and workouts, and some moments in a great show of victory. That’s my point, miracles happen, I believe in them and all, but they require preparation to be valid and they work in a genuine sense that is lasting, or is the miracle just genuine “flash in the pan” luck without that substance to make it last if the miracle happens successfully.

In fact, we must evolve, grow and prepare ourselves to make a miracle work for us in a genuine and permanent way. The real failure in life is depends in luck and miracles from the beginning without preparation or understanding of what is happening. To fully appreciate and understand anything without doubt or fear, we must train. As Yoda essentially said in “Star Wars, Episode Five: The Empire Strikes Back”: It’s not about trying, it’s about doing it. In the sense I am writing about, that is the reality. The person who depends on luck and miracles without preparation essentially tries, even if he succeeds, and doesn’t and just depends on a lucky break or a “miraculous” prayer to succeed without knowledge or awareness. The prepared person always does, especially when he really succeeds, and if he fails, it is a slip and not a fall, only to succeed later through a better awareness of what he needs and wants to do. So essentially, to truly win without question and with repeatable results, we must genuinely train and desire, or winning means nothing more than “lightning in the pan” like the lucky three-point shot in a basketball game from the middle of the game. the pitch that it is is not easily repeatable because it is a “miracle buzzer”. In this sense, there is no trying, just doing, too. Reality is formation, and our genuine actions and results in it are the championship game, always.