Muscle memory

Many of the skills we use in everyday life (e.g. brushing teeth, combing hair) are facilitated by "muscle memory", the unconscious recall of how much pressure to use or the proper speed at which to move our hand. Imagine if you had to consciously think about "how" to comb your hair as you were doing it!

Last summer I shaved my beard down to a goatee. Last week I shaved it all off, probably for the first time in five years. The first several days were pretty awkward. It seemed that each day when I shaved around my chin there were areas in which I was using too much or too little pressure - ouch! Sometimes I'd be going over areas several times to finish the job which made things worse - can you say "razor burn"!

This morning things changed. Instead of repeated short passes everything went smoothly - zip, zip, zip. Job done, no cuts - didn't even think about it!

As with many things, old skills seem to come back pretty quickly with a little practice. I still find new situations in which to use my developing social skills. Practiced skills are becoming second nature and they seem to form the foundation for continued progress. I'm often working outside my comfort zone, but each time I do the zone seems to expand a little.

No worries, everything is going to work out fine.