Practice is Perfect

If you’re waiting around for perfection, take a seat and brew some tea. It’s going to be a while.

“Practice, practice, practice. Oh when oh when am I going to get there?”

This squarely falls into the “Simple But Not Easy” category, but it’s a mindset shift, a slight change of the angle of perception. It’s still doing the same thing, but seeing it in a different light.

Practice Doesn’t Make Perfect. Practice is Perfect.

Let’s take my dear friend the marathon runner. One might think, hell, he might even think, that the marathon, or worse yet, some certain time goal for completing that marathon, is his goal–or his perfect.

I’m just going to blurt it out in hopes it might sink in through blunt simplicity: his practice is his perfection. When he is practicing, when he is running, he is perfect. He not only has already achieved his goal, he repeatedly achieves his goal. How often? Do you really have to ask? Every Single Day.

This is even crazier, but he might even achieve his perfect when he reaches that completion time. But then what? Has he reached perfection? Yay! Oh, but now what?

Yeah, exactly. Now what?

Could it be that reaching perfection could even be a “bad” thing? Marathon guy might then do what? He could either:

1. Keep going and strive for better finish times.
2. Be satisfied with his achievement and stay level.
3. Relish in the accomplishment and slow down or quit altogether (as he achieved his goal, so he’s done and can move on).

What if his Practice were his Perfect?

What if, Every Single Day, he achieved his goal? What if it weren’t necessarily the goal in the most commonly used sense of the word, but it was just a habit or running was just a part of who had become? What if running were the goal? Running became just a part of what he does, who he is and now he can build on top of that and become more because he is achieving his goal all of the time and it’s taking little or no effort or decision-making power or striving or trying?

He is building a solid foundation from which he can further excel. But we’re not talking about speed or strength or even health or benefits.

When has he reached perfection?
When perfection is no longer his goal.

The practice is his perfection. He has risen above the “end goal” and is to a point where it is not a question of whether or not he achieves some time or some physical shape or something that occurs now and again.

The secret, if you’ve dared to read down this far, is that he will then achieve those goals, the time, the health, the whatever it is that he wanted, but they are just icing on the cake and, sure, he enjoys them, but his perfection is his practice. His wins and successes are par for the course, they are just side effects of his consistent perfection.

• Possible: practice
• Impossible: perfection
• Repossible: practice is perfect

If this still doesn’t completely make sense to you, think about it this way: The Path is the Destination.