I’m sure you have heard the phrase “practice makes perfect” many times in your life. You may have even used it on your children or other people you know.
Indeed if you want to get as near as possible to perfect in something, practice is the key. Usually at least 10,000 hours of it.
But before practice makes perfect is … practice makes you great.
Before that … practice makes you very good.
Before that … practice makes you good.
Before that … practice makes you not bad.
Not bad, it turns out, is significantly better than almost everyone else. And ‘not bad’ takes a whole lot less practice than what is needed to be perfect. More importantly ‘not bad’ can often be enough to get you through.
Sometimes our desire to be perfect is the very thing that stops us starting in the first place.
‘Practice makes you not bad’ still takes practice and a decision to start. It’s just the goal is different and the pressure is off.
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It may be guitar. Or a language. Or sport. Or maths. Or computers. Or even work. Being not bad takes far less than we expect.
The challenge for me is to stop trying to be a perfectionist all the time, and to be happy with not bad. Because when I’m happy with not bad, it actually makes practice easier and more enjoyable.
Maybe that’s the case with you as well.
And for your kids.