Practice Makes Almost Perfect

Ralph Waldo Emerson said ‘That which we persist in doing becomes easier, not that the nature of the thing has changed, but our ability to do has increased’.

This statement is whole heartedly true.

If we set a goal for ourselves to learn something or try something – this is step one.

Next we must persist in building the habits and foundations of the task or the ‘try’ so that we have the basic fundamental principles.

Its like building a house.

We don’t just get on a bike and ride it.

We do this in layers – brick by brick, working our way up to the peak.

We learn the basics of balance, multitasking, and principles of speed.

We learn about the tools required to do this in the most successful and least problematic (or in the case of riding a bike, injury limiting) way.

We slowly wobble down the street, usually with training wheels, learning how to balance.

Our first few passes are often incredibly uncomfortable, wobbly, and intimidating.

A lot of us (or kids) often want to give up quickly because of the uncertainness of it all.

But slowly we keep building the skills, and confidence required, to take the next step.

We removed the training wheels and persist.

Next we’re slowly and even more wobbly making our way up and down the sidewalk.

Falling over, scraping knees and probably getting somewhat discouraged and frustrated that we aren’t flying around the neighbourhood by this point.

We’re uncomfortable at the prospect of others watching us in these early stages of our pre-success.

Intimidated by the fact that someone may see us as other than perfect or able.

Regardless of the truth that we were all there at one point. Scraped knees and hands, down in the dirt when we’d rather be flying.

Despite all of this… we continue on.

Battling with our inner motivation or lack their of.

Finally, one day – it clicks.

Slowly the wobble goes away, and the fear of others dwindles.

We’re flying – flying around the block beaming with confidence.

We did it! We’ve persisted in the act of learning and have added a new skill to our growing list.

Practicing has paid off.

While the pursuit of perfection may always be glaring at us, we should also take stock of the fact that perfect doesn’t – or shouldn’t exist.

There is always more we can learn, ways we can increase and enhance our skill set.

The pursuit of perfection should always be a goal.

The one goal that we always strive for but don’t expect to reach.

Its ok to have goals that we don’t reach.

While its important to have obtainable goals, we also need to keep motivating ourselves to move forward.

Be better.

Do better.

While the example above is specific to riding a bicycle, the principles and fundamentals can be applied to anything we want to learn in life.

Patience is a virtue.

Start at the bottom and slowly, and sometimes painstakingly, work your way to the top.

And once you’ve reached the top, take a moment to reflect on how far you’ve come.

And then start dreaming about how much further you can go if you tried something else, or applied what you’ve learned to move further in the same direction.

Life may never be easy.

No matter how hard we try, and how much we learn.

Life will never be easy – but – when we take the time to learn, tasks and skillsets become easier just by the nature of learning more about them.

 

 

 

 

Guest Blogger Rayna Davies

Rayna is the Office Manager at Sentinel Security, as well as the main blog contributor.

With foundations firmly routed in Business administration, Customer Service, and Management, she brings years of experience to her roles both within the Sentinel office, and the blog.

Having grown up with a father who has developed an expertise in Physical Security and Executive Protection in the RCMP and two major corporations, she has personally observed and experienced many security details.  These experiences have included personally meeting HM Queen Elizabeth, Prime Minister Jean Chretien and many celebrities.

Her passions include spending time with her husband and two young children, world travel, reading, writing, and pushing herself to always look for the silver lining.