Practice Makes Perfect

Introduction:

Whenever you hear the term, 

• “Practice makes perfect.”

You may think it is arbitrary and blatantly false. However, this phrase may contribute to success more than you believe.

Adaptation:

All mammals, scientifically, can adapt to different circumstances depending on their environment. Evolution occurs over generations, and important traits are retained, whereas obsolete ones are discarded. What does adaptation have anything to do with practice? Well, after repetitive exposure to our environment, our bodies physically or biologically adapt to suit our needs. This is truly beautiful because it may seem like we are fixated with our bodies, but in several hundred years, our descendants may demonstrate cool traits we thought were impossible.

Practice:Similar to adaptation, practicing a skill and wiring neurological processes to help you achieve higher performance at a specific task. Take juggling, for example, at first it may be difficult to even throw the ball in the air. Obviously, it will be hard. You’ve never tried the skill, and we have not researched proper training, technique, style, and other factors that may improve our performance. Our nerves and body have never been accustomed to juggling, and it takes several months of dedicated practice to achieve this year. 

Why Practicing May Feel Boring:

As young teens and adults, we want everything to be given to us. It is difficult to admit our novice status in a certain activity. We see NBA players shoot half court shoots, and we desire to replicate those scenarios, but sadly, we don’t offer as much time as other players may put into the sport. The same repetitive notion over and over again is tiring, and eventually it becomes stale. We want to show the results, but we do not care about the journey to achieve those results. It is like building a house without designing a blueprint; you need the foundation to execute the skill. Basketball is a similar skill; you need to shoot several hundred shots per week to see progress. One or two shots at your neighbor’s house will not accomplish anything.

How to Start:

You may be motivated to start improvements on a certain skill, but feel hesitant to begin. It’s difficult to immediately begin training because the activity is completely new to us. This is how beginners feel. Do not let this feeling steer you away from mastery. Skills are meant to be difficult to learn. You may feel excited at the beginning, exhausted after a couple of minutes, andmaybe feel inclined to quit, but do not stress. Do not feel shame in the early phases of learning; everyone feels demotivated because of others or scared to get judged. But we overthink. So many people are invested in their own lives, and we believe care to an extent to ridicule us. While there may be some individuals who may act maliciously towards us, these individuals are few to none, and the others probably act apathetically towards us. We shouldn’t allow others to choose our interests, instead we should decide the skills we want to learn.

The next time you want to learn a skill, try to,

• Research about it

• Try to fit it into your schedule

• Search for clubs or coaches

• Set a reminder every day

Small notions such as these will set the foundational steps for your consistency.

Conclusion:

Overall, learning a skill takes time. It takes several years to achieve advanced levels of mastery, and lifetimes to achieve greatness. You will sacrifice hours, days, weeks, and months into improving bit by bit. It takes dedication, motivation, consistency, and the desire to improve to truly achieve mastery. The greatest athletes practiced for hours in the gym to improve their athleticism. They spent countless hours fixing a small inconsistency in their form. You need to find joy; you will need to envision yourself being successful to truly find an activity you can stick to.