December

[benos]

The little voice in my head has been saying that there might be a more appropriate way to end the year than TV trivia. (Maybe next month.) After all it is a learning-in-general/shooting forum.

So wouldn't you know it, today shred came through with a great year ending "win a book" idea:

Whoever posts my favorite "What is the (single) best thing I learned in 2004" - will be the winner. I know that puts a lot of pressure on me as the judge and all - but it'll be fun.

I guess I should specify if the post should be about shooting, but the little voice says that I don't really feel like it. So, you decide what you feel like sharing.

And also - the winner will have their pick of "Anything I Ship." Since it is the holiday season...

be

[Wakal]

I learned all sorts of things. Oh, I'd heard them before but I hadn't really learned them. Some stuff has to have time to sink in, especially if you are as dense as I am.

No matter how fast you are, if your gear isn't reliable then you lose.

You can miss and win, but you have to miss REALLY fast to pull it off.

Winning isn't the only thing, but it beats everything else.

You can see faster than you can shoot, but you can't shoot accurately faster than you can see.

Cheating is evil, but while accurately following the rules exactly as written may look like cheating...it sure isn't evil

Alex

[tightloop]

Learning that patience and tolerance hold an important place in life just as they do in shooting.

Also learned that this forum, its founder, and the members can touch your life in non-shooting related ways, that you never expected..

[benos]

Thanks for that early favorite David! I feel I assimilated both of those qualities from my father.

be

[RIIID]

My mind is making promises that my body can't fill.

Rich

[Eye Cutter]

that the benosverse forums get one of the highest numbers of visits in the internet?

[Jake Di Vita]

It's not if you win or lose, but how bad you beat the guy in second place.

[Vlad]

That after years of being smug about my 20/20 vision and ignoring my mild astigmatism I jumped one class within one month after getting glasses. What I really learn is that sometimes you have to put aside pride, vanity and the like and just do the right thing. It pays off more then you might expect.

Vlad

[Pierruiggi]

I learned (or I'm still learning) that the relative importance of mindset is much more important than proper text-book technique.

[diehli]

I learned to call my shots. Funny thing is that it's an evolutionary procedure and that it isn't something that, no matter how much you read about it, you can force to happen. There are times when I'm being lazy, though, and not calling them... I need to learn to not be lazy.

[h4444]

I learned that through honestly evaluating the problems I have on the range, I can now break them down logically and through dry fire and other inexpensive but yet highly focused means I can still improve without having to purchase a small bullet company or miss out on family commitments.

Due to a change in the family (an addition), I've had to perfect my practice techniques to maximize the results produced from the minimal amount of time I have on the range.

Over the last 4 months I've shot the best scores of my life and my only range time has been in matches.....

H4444

[Jeeper]

.... Will repost later in a better wording

[SiG Lady]

--The gun has to fit perfectly (it's all about details).

--Isolate the trigger finger.

--The attitude has to be screwed on straight.

Not necessarily in that order--but necessary.

It's a Zen thing....

[Matthew_Mink]

I learned that I can relearn what I knew all along, again.

[George]

I have finally figured out how I always beat myself. Now to stop doing it without thinking about it.

--

Regards,

[driver8M3]

I used to be a dedicated (though not very good) GSSF shooter. Near the end of 2003, a friend (fellow forum member Carlos) talked me into trying the USPSA matches at Shooters Paradise. I'll never forget him saying "Give it a try...it will change your life."

So what did I learn in 2004? That Carlos was absolutely right!

[mcoliver]

As the year ends, I realized the single best thing I learned from this forum is that :

It always makes my day. Why? Because:

1. I learned about life

2. I learned about shooting

3. I learned I'm logged on almost everyday ('cept some weekends and when on leave from work )

4. I have another year to work on a fix for my BE forum addiction.

And in the very few times that I didn't learn anything when I dropped by:

5. I got a chuckle from at least a thread or two.

[Skywalker]

In 2004 I've learned that my mind (on which I rely for anything I really want to perform well into) is my greatest obstacle when it comes to hi-speed shooting.

In the beginning I've been obsessed by making my mind work for me during the shooting. I kept telling myself "...if I can make my mind think of the right stuff, during the shooting, there is no way I'm gonna do bad...".

Now I have realized that this all worked against me.

I have showed myself (repeatedly) that all the good performances I had collected in this year matches were invariably obtained by short-circuiting my mind out of the shooting process.

That's what I learned for 2004 (and didn't do it all by myself, had a coupla hints on this from a certain book... ).

[Dead Buff]

Lets see. In 2004 BEF has taught me:

My front sight controls my trigger finger

My eyes control my transitions

High HF do not come from speed alone (No Sh...T)

To learn tolerance might be more difficult than to win an IPSC level IV or V match

The mind has no place after "beeeep"

Life in 2004 has taught me:

All obstacles can be overcome

It is a great gift to be able to receive a gift - often more difficult than to give one - think about it...

[mas]

Darn, I learned so much that it's hard to put it all together into a few coherent statements. The most important thing I've learned, originally from my teacher Seung Sahn and reinforced countless times here and in my personal life is simply this:

make "mind" very stupid and small...when I get out of my own way, and "I" is removed from this moment, then awareness is possible.

This has been really important to me given my tendency to be so self-critical and perfectionistic. It gives me the permission to see the world as a child might and to let go of all of the layers of perception that serve as obstacles to experience. I also find that the very best "parts" of me are opened up and available to others.

[Cameron]

The biggest thing I learned this year was calling shots. I think it took me almost 10,000 rounds and many hours of dryfire before the sheet was pulled off the gun to reveal the sights. This process allowed me to go from an 18% L10 shooter in Sept 03 to a 68% B Open shooter by summer of 2004.

On to the next milestone, that is, not trying to shoot as fast as the "brat" I was squadded with at Nationals.

[blackdragon]

Some times you are the dog and some times you are the hydrant. I think Iam getting old and RUSTY!

[Bubber]

What I have learned this year, and it seems relearn every year is that your only limitations are the ones you place on yourself and you are the one that can remove them.

[Pierruiggi]

Although this is a "post the single most important thing you learned in 2004" thread, which I thought I already did, reading your replies made me realize that my answer was rushed. To be fair with the premises of this thread, I understand if this list doesn't compete for the book, but I feel I learned several important things this year, and I'm not sure I can pick one out. All of them served to make me grow.

-Its beatiful to have friends that really love you (I learned this around february this year, when commenting to a friend I was unemployed -like 30% of my country's population- and looking for a job; he interrupted me and offered that I work in a small business he has. Even though he didn't need me and even though my salary would be deduced from his profits, which aren't much.)

-Patience is fundamental in nearly every aspect of life.

-Sometimes selfishness doesn't let us see that dieing and leaving a legacy is better than spending the rest of your life suffering to finally die being a shadow of your true self.

-In relation to the last one, death brings mixed emotions. Of course there is a feeling of loosing someone, but also relief "that is finally over".

-In contrast, unexpected death brings only sorrow and a sense of injustice.

-Death has at least two faces.

-Extremes are not good. A balance in all aspects of life is required.

-Feeling sorry for yourself won't get you anywhere.

-I get more intense feelings when listening to music than when hearing or reading a story.

-Music alone is capable of making me cry (not in a funny "rap makes me want to cry" way. I mean for real). This was truly a discovery since I'm really not a cry-a-lot kind of person. Must be something in the tunes that trigger something buried in my subconscious.

-Strangely, I often lack empathy for people that I love; but I can feel really sympathethic for unknown people and specially animals.

-In regards to shooting, I basically began shooting "for real" in april this year. So I learned everything I currently know this year.

-Excercise is good once you get used to it. Its hideous at first, but finally being able to run a couple blocks and not collapsing to the ground gasping for air is really nice. I couldn't complete ONE pushup when I started 3 months ago (I wasn't fat, just really lacking muscle tissue I guess. I was 6 foot 1 inch tall, 200 pounds when I started. I don't know now.), now I'm consistenly able to do at least 50 of them in series of 10 reps.

I'll edit this as I remember more.

EDIT:

-Loosing its not failing, its learning.

[Sac Law Man]

Two things I learned...

1) Shooting isn't about pulling the trigger, its all about seeing. Unless you shoot alot, you will never know what visual patience, follow through and calling your shots mean.

2) First time I read BE's book, I thought, "what the heck"?, Second time I read the book, I thought "what the heck"? After shooting alot and getting on a consistent practice regimine, I read the book again, now I read it and think, "Oh thats what he meant"!

John