Tell me you've seen the movie The Color of Money…?
It's ok if you haven't because my list of classic-movies-I-should-have-seen-by-now-in-my-late-20s-but-actually-have-never-even-heard-of was embarrassingly long until just a few years ago.
It's humourous to think I used to be ‘really into movies’ before I met my current boyfriend of 5 years who also happens to be my baby daddy.
I was one of those cringey girls who was into indie movies and was influenced by The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind via emo graphics on Tumblr circa 2007.
When I met my man in 2018, I remember him saying he was ‘into movies’ as well and I thought, “Perfect! I've been looking for a companion to Netflix and chill with…” hehe 😉
(Would not recommend said Netflix and chilling unless you are either 1) actually wanting to get pregnant or b) taking preventative measures to not get pregnant. I was absolutely neither of those at the time LOL)
I was rudely awakened when I realized he was in fact ‘really into movies,’ and I would soon find out I would spend the next 5 years (and counting) of our relationship watching many great classics, like The Godfather, and Scarface, and the Batman with Heath Ledger, and No Country For Old Men more times than I would like to count.
This is when it dawned on me that I've (until recently) barely scratched the surface of classic Hollywood films and the great movies of our time.
Staying true to us being “really into movies,” I'd say we average 3 full movies per week and that's on a bad week when we instead replace our usual movie experience with our weekly episode of live comedy on Kill Tony or binge-watch a TV series like The Bear.
We recently added The Color of Money to our classics “watched” list, and let me tell you… it had me hot.
And no, not hot for the obvious reason… i.e. the young 24-year-old Tom Cruise (that SMOKIN' piece of pie)
I typed that and realized pies definitely don't smoke… well maybe they do when they're fresh and hot out of the oven. Just like Tom Cruise fresh and hot in his 20s 😂
If you’re not familiar with the movie, Tom Cruise is this young, cocky, talented pool player who meets a man who teaches him the ropes of pool hustling. It includes all of your must-haves for a Tom Cruise movie; action, risk, drama, a steamy love story, and of course, a very sexy Tom Cruise.
To be honest, it’s a good movie but nothing to write home about (but I guess it is something to include in your weekly newsletter as I’m doing here).
But it had me HOT because I’ve been playing pool.
Well, to be frank, I’ve played pool a lot in my life.
I grew up with two young, wildly social parents who played pool often.
I grew up in a household with a pool table we played on regularly.
And being the musky, smoke-filled, dive bar lover that I am (trust me there’s a time and place for the boujee-ness but there’s also a time and place for a good biker bar), my man and I love to go to a bar or pool-hall as a date for some games of pool.
But my relationship with pool has just completely escalated since this past summer when my man and I moved into our new house and bought ourselves a pool table. He actually bought the pool table, I just supported him with that decision.
We planted that sucker right in the middle of our game room, which happens to be 3 ft. away from my office, and we play. every. single. day.
Please do NOT be impressed because I’m really not that great 😂
But I do have big enough balls to throw myself into a pool lineup of men at a random saloon in Laguna Beach by walking up to the table, throwing down a stack of coins, and saying, “I play winner.” Where I then proceed to get my ass kicked by a foreign man named Rick. True story.
However, we’ve owned our pool table for a solid 4 months. If we average that out to about 15 games per week (we usually play best 2 out of 3 or 3 out of 5 if it gets spicy), that’s 240 games I’ve played at home since June. 🤯
You could say I’m a hobbyist… or a pool enthusiast.
What I love about this, and why I bring up sexy pool shooting Tom Cruise, is because like any sport/hobby/activity…. the more you do it, the better you get at it.
If you watch The Color of Money, you’ll see continuous shots of Tom actually playing pool and actually being really good at it.
Wild concept 👀
I asked myself, did he already know how to play pool that well? According to a quick Google search, Tom bought a pool table for his apartment and practiced for hours on end to get good for the role in this movie.
Don’t get me wrong; like anything, I think people have natural inclinations to be great at something. For example, if your hand-eye coordination is generally shit (aka me) you’ll have a more difficult time getting great at pool, unlike your boyfriend who has the hand-eye coordination of a surgeon with a full night’s sleep.
Knowing that I’ve now played 200+ games and hours of pool, I can actually see a difference in my game from a few months ago to now.
I was recently on an awful 8+ game streak of losses against my man, but I kept playing anyway (mostly because it’s our way of bonding and getting the opportunity to talk every day about our lives).
But I ended up finally feeling some confidence with my shots and, with the right pool stick, I became my most cocky self as I beat my man in over 5 games. And that’s saying something because he’s pretty good. I was on a hot streak – you might as well call me Fast Eddie Nelson 😉
The point is – you are never going to become great at something if you don’t put in the time.
And this goes for any skill.
Whether you’re baking cakes, detailing airplanes, writing a newsletter, free diving, selling insurance, building Dubsado systems, or a million other things we set out to “master,” you have to put in the time to become the best.
You may have heard the famous saying by Malcom Gladwell, “The key to achieving true expertise in any skill is simply a matter of practicing, in the correct way, for at least 10,000 hours.”
Sounds exhausting, sure. But whether you agree or not on the exact number of hours, we can all agree it takes a lot of time to master a skill.
How often do we complain about not being great at something, or we ask ourselves why we can’t just get better at this one thing, or we feel like XYZ is so hard for us to do… it’s pretty simple. It’s because you haven’t put in the time.
You haven’t committed to becoming the expert.
Can I challenge you for a second? Let’s put all the sexy Tom Cruise talk aside and get real…
What have you been putting off because you know it’s going to take your time?
Maybe you’ve promised yourself you’ll start that garden but you don’t have a green thumb.
Maybe you’ve been trying to find the confidence to grow your newsletter but you’re not very good at writing.
Maybe you want to become the next Fast Eddie Nelson but you feel like a beginner.
Start doing the work. Start showing up. And just practice.
Soon enough, you will find yourself hundreds of hours in feeling like the expert.
And by then, you will be.
Here’s to practicing – because all great, successful masters perfected the art of practice.
Show yourself some love today.
You’ve earned it.
As always,
Taylor Torres