With persistent practice you will achieve your goals
Author
Dr. Roberto Miranda
Summary: Tony Meléndez, a Nicaraguan born without arms, learned to play the guitar and keyboard with his toes through persistent practice. His talent eventually led him to perform for Pope John Paul II, who was so impressed that he planted a kiss on Tony and encouraged him to continue giving hope to people. Tony's brain adapted to his unique circumstances and developed the necessary resources to achieve his vision. The same can be true for bad habits, which can become ingrained in our neurological wiring. We must persist in our visions and commit to long-term action in order to achieve heroic achievements.
Some time ago I read about the case of Tony Meléndez, a young Nicaraguan who was born without arms as a result of a medicine taken by his mother during pregnancy. In her childhood, her parents moved to the United States in order to provide better medical care for her condition. At some point during his childhood, Tony began trying to play the keyboard and guitar on his toes. After many years of practice, he developed such dexterity that he came to sing and play in public places, impressing everyone with his rare ability. During his youth, Tony rediscovered his Catholic faith and began to become actively involved in the program of his local church. He became so popular in the Catholic circles of his city that he got to participate musically up to five times a Sunday in different masses in the area. He gained the attention of influential people, including one of the people in charge of organizing the program for Pope John Paul II's visit to the United States in 1987.
"Someone got my name from somewhere and asked me to attend a meeting," Tony recalls in a biographical note. "I wasn't sure what it was about." It turned out to be an audition for the event, and Tony was accepted. "I was very excited when I found out," he adds. Tony's performance so impressed the Pope that he stepped out of his seat, stepped off the stage, and planted a kiss on the surprised singer. The pontiff's words were of great encouragement to him, and transformed his life and his musical career: “Tony, truly you are a brave young man. You are giving all of us hope. My wish for you is that you continue to give hope to all people ”. The audience erupted in enthusiastic applause.
Since then, Tony has traveled all over the world, singing in places of great distinction, and winning all kinds of prestigious awards that recognize the quality of his music and the great inspiration that his life is for so many people.
Those people who go around the world reaching goals, achieving extraordinary things in their lives, conquering mountains, surpassing each day in their defects and personality, achieving the impossible, like Tony Meléndez, generally have that common denominator of patience or persistence. Although things take time, they are able to persist in the vision.
How many years did it take Tony to learn to play the guitar with his toes? Right now, in your mind, try to imagine yourself playing the strings of a guitar lying on the floor with your big toe, while pressing the other strings to the appropriate place on the fretboard with your other fingers. It would seem impossible, but through long years of arduous learning, little by little, Tony's brain was accommodating to be able to perform that feat.
God has endowed man with impressive flexibility and potential. Every day, studies by psychologists and neurologists show us the amazing plasticity of the human brain. Our neurological wiring adapts to the tasks we assign it, and develops new circuits in obedience to the goals that we undertake steadily throughout life.
I am sure that if you had an examination of Tony Meléndez's brain when he died, it would reveal that there is a part of his brain that is more developed than the average person. That part will surely have to do with toe coordination. Over time, Tony's brain determined that this part of his neurological makeup needed more resources, because Tony was assigning him more sophisticated tasks than normal. Through persistent practice, Tony managed to operate on the very structure of his brain, and develop the resources necessary to realize his amazing vision.
So it is for evil and bad habits that we often allow to rule our lives. If we subject our body to improper practices over time, the neurons in our brain adapt. What began as an isolated practice, separated from our permanent personality, becomes a structural part of our being. That is why what we practice continuously over time becomes a habit. Habit becomes biology. Then it becomes a trait of our character. Finally, it determines our destiny, since it accompanies us throughout life, permanently installed in the wiring of our neurological system.
God has made us incredibly flexible. We can develop much more than our shyness often allows us to think. Within us there are powerful potentialities and mechanisms that only await our persistent action to rise up and begin to hum in obedience to our directives. But those wonderful capacities, divinely established within us, require sustained practice, persistence that does not give up.
Only through long-term action are micro processes initiated and sustained that ultimately lead to powerful skills and heroic achievements in the outside world. That is why it is important that when we undertake the realization of a vision, we commit to it in the long term, trusting in that mysterious innate capacity that we carry within us to develop all the scaffolding that we require for success.
Although the vision takes a long time to realize, we must persist in it, falling in love with it and rehearsing it until our inner being adapts to it, until the necessary nutrients and resources emerge within us to nourish it and bring it to its full consummation. Persist in the call you have received from God. Like the woman before the unjust judge, keep knocking on the door of your loving Heavenly Father. He who abides to the end - that one will get the crown! Perhaps all that will be required is just one more touch, to open up before you the beautiful panorama that God has destined for you since the foundation of the world.