19 August 2012

The Beauty Behind the Blast

While we are all looking for better results downrange, good marksmanship starts behind the muzzle. When a shooter can demonstrate the right technique, the higher scores follow - whether that's tighter groups, faster follow-ups, longer ranges, or any other measure of shooting success. And I find that looking beautiful can be a step in getting there.

I think of it like my first day at my first "grown up" job. I wore a shiny new suit, moved into my shiny new office, and nearly had a panic attack when I realized I would be expected to advise people twice my age how to run their businesses. I had all the right training and all the right pieces of paper, but I still had a severe case of impostor syndrome and wondered why anybody would listen to a young woman who still looked like a teenager on weekends. As the weeks passed though, I kept wearing my shiny suits and I kept reminding myself to say "This is what to do" instead of "I think maybe you should"...and one day, I found that while I was pretending to be a Serious Professional, I had actually become one. 

Looking beautiful on the range isn't about wearing the cute-butt pants and having a good hair day. It's about confidence and competence. It's about knowing how your gear runs, knowing what you need to do to make that next shot, and knowing that you can get where you want to be.  And when you can do that - even if you have to pretend at first - the successes on the range will follow. And that's beautiful.