Everyone has heard the common saying "practice makes perfect." From my experience, this saying doesn't hold true since nothing can ever be perfect. You can attempt at a task or skill many times, but that won't guarantee that it will cause perfect results.

Sometimes, the effort you put into the task or skill can be good and will take up most of your time, but it won't be a positive result. Yes, it's not a very optimistic approach, however, it is just the reality of it at times. I have also been told that "perfect practice makes perfect". While this makes more sense saying that practicing the correct way will ensure perfect results, this still is not always the truth. Mistakes happen and can mess up any progress. We are human and perfection is nearly impossible.

I'm a firm believer of the more realistic saying that "practice makes permanent." I first heard this variation at a young age from my dance teacher Mary and it has stuck with me in many aspects of my life. In dance, you only have a few minutes on stage to perform a routine that you spend many months working on in order for it to be as great as it can possibly be. No matter how many hours were spent repeating certain sections of the routine to have it drilled into our minds and bodies, it can never meet the expectations of perfection, but the process of repetition will make the action become permanent when it's time to perform. Just because you practice one thing one thousand times doesn't mean that it will magically become perfect the next time. The more it is practiced though, the more likely you will be able to act in the way that your body remembers.

Since the practice is permanent, it makes it more difficult to undo poor practices. Mistakes happen and that is all a part of the practice, but ignoring the mistakes will only slow down success. If you take the time to welcome feedback and assistance from others, the road to success comes much sooner and easier. They can see what can be fixed and learning from your mistakes is half the battle. Take, for example, a problem in a math class. It's easy enough to make a mistake somewhere and end up with an incorrect answer. By taking the time to figure out what went wrong will allow you to know for future reference on a test to avoid the same mistake and continue with confidence in your abilities.

There isn't a doubt in my mind that practice is necessary. You cannot simply learn how to accomplish something by watching someone else do it; you need to put in the effort yourself to make it happen. For instance, driving is a skill that is impossible to pick up immediately. It requires a lot of practice in order to figure it out how to handle all of the possibilities of situations on the road. However, just by putting in countless hours of driving, it doesn't ensure that you'll be a perfect driver. The way you practice driving is the way you will continue to drive as the years go on since it's engraved in your memory as your were taught.

In order to be successful for any skill in life, practice is necessary. Although perfection is a great thing to strive for when it comes to practicing, it's nearly impossible to achieve such a high goal. What really matters in the end is that the effort you put in is productive enough to make your permanent results exactly what you hope for.