As a child of the 80s, I’ll always remember “wax on, wax off” from the movie, The Karate Kid. If you are too young to know this, it’s where Mr. Miyagi, the karate master teaches Daniel-san karate. For the summer, he gets him sanding floors, painting fences, and waxing his car. There’s a classic scene where Daniel-san has had enough and complains that he came to learn karate and not to do Mr. Miyagi’s chores.
As Daniel turns away, Mr. Miyagi calls him back and asks him to demonstrate each of the hand actions. As Daniel had been working all summer, the hand actions came naturally to him – pure muscle memory.
In our Flip, the Script mastermind group, one of the participants wanted to write her second book and we suggested a number of methods, including writing a certain number of words a day. I was reminded of the film as one of the other participants said you get used to doing it after a while as you’re developing muscle memory.
Whatever you want to do or get better at, it’s worth putting in the time because you are training yourself to be consistent. In this case, it’s sitting down and tapping into the parts of the brain that invoke creativity. At first, it may feel unnatural but after a while, it becomes a part of who you are.
Wax on, wax off to your next project.