For all the teachers and coaches that have positively reinforced practice into my life, I am forever grateful. Thank you for everything you have taught me, regardless if I gave you a hard time in the process of learning.
I’ve learned over the course of 19 years that your commitment and passion level determine the effectiveness of the broad term “practice.” It is clear that with everything you do, one should do it wholeheartedly. Recognizing the quote “practice makes perfect” really got me to think of all the times I practiced something but wasn’t necessarily doing it correctly. As this continued, I thought I was maximizing the possibility of perfection, though it turns out that I was deterring myself from learning the correct idea, workout movement, baking technique and much more. From that realization, I now openly disagree with the infamous “practice makes perfect” quote.
To me, failure is all part of the learning and educational process. No matter how discouraging it is, it adequately shapes our attitude and appreciation for those who actively correct your good intentions. It is something that everyone goes through in order to spark positive change within your social life, workout life or your lifestyle in general. I am someone who will primarily get mad when someone corrects me, but then I’ll later come to understand that they were looking out for my best interest and health.
On a personal level: Until this past Summer I did not know the correct deadlift form and after each lift session with my collegiate soccer team, my back would always ache. Once I was home and religiously started going to crossfit, they taught me the correct form. For all the months leading up to that point, I was doing the form completely wrong which resulted in my nagging back injury. This made me notice that while I thought the form was correct, it was completely wrong. When the coaches willingly corrected my form, it was then and there that it clicked; with practice comes the idea of permanence. Once I got good form and continually practiced it, it became permanent. Now whenever I pick up a barbell, my form is correct because of my continual practice and awareness.
This personal example (hopefully other readers can create a parallel between my story and something that has happened in their life) has made me accept failure and come to terms with it, as well as reinforce good technique after appropriate direction. Addressing this idea, I think that people should emphasize practice and permanence rather than conforming to the ideas of perfectionism. To me, perfectionism is very unrealistic and insensitive because of the sole idea that mistakes create who we are while providing us with opportunities to learn more about ourselves and our behavior. Every time I hear someone mention “practice makes perfect”, I cringe and giggle inside. If only they knew that permanence assists your personal growth, while perfection causes you to set an unrealistic and unreachable objective.
