Practice (Plus Passion) Makes Perfect (Painlessly)

Or even if it doesn’t, it at least makes it better than not practicing.

Here’s the recipe for improvement / success:

Passion: love something (e.g. piano).
Practice: try, learn, do.
Perseverance: keep at it.
Pursue: follow, emulate, learn about those who are ahead of you.

Is practice (alone) enough?

Not if you’re not giving it your best. Practice without passion is just going through the motions. If you sit there and play the piano without any passion (or life or effort or a pulse), it’s not going to make you better anytime soon.

Is passion enough?

Just because you love something doesn’t mean you’re (going to be) good at it. Even if you have the talent, even if you were born with it, it might not translate into being good at something–and maybe never perfect. But does it help? Absolutely.

My son doesn’t want to practice basketball, but granted, he doesn’t say that he wants to improve. With piano, although he would rather do his Dutch homework than have his piano lesson (both fates worse than death), since his recital, he’s been “practicing” without any prodding.

Follow-up post coming: Don’t forget that the iPad in the hands of your child can actually help them learn.