Practice Does Not Make Perfect (Here Is What Does)

You have probably heard the phrase “practice makes perfect” from coaches and teachers. Well, they are liars. What if you practice the same motion over and over again, but you do it wrong? Now, you just created muscle memory for the wrong move. Practice just made you have to break a whole new habit!

Admittedly, I don’t watch football. I don’t care about other people’s lives who make millions more than me playing a game. So, I have no idea how I came across this quote by Vince Lombardi…“Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.”

But you aren’t perfect. Which means your practice won’t be perfect. So, what do you do? This is the Perfect Paradox. 

The Perfect Paradox and How To Move Past It

Perfect is a paradox. You will never achieve perfection because whatever you do can always get better. You can do something the best you can and practice daily, but it will also instill bad habits. So, accept this. We are all flawed.

Perfection is also subjective. What you see as perfect, someone else may see flaws in. This is often the case when you work with a coach one-on-one after practicing independently. You think you are doing fantastic, only for them to tell you how to do it better. 

Now that you feel bad about yourself, let me show you how to escape this paradox.

How I Got Out Of The Perfect Paradox.

When I first started working for myself, I was proficient in search engine optimization (SEO). Did I know everything? No. And it didn’t matter because the people at Google are way smarter than me. I can game the system, but I am not on their level. Also, the algorithm changes, so even if I am incredible at SEO now, it will change, and I will have to evolve.

From a business standpoint, I had no idea how to run one. I knew the minimalist version: do something, get paid. That was enough to get started. 

My “perfect practice” was ever-evolving, and I would have to go back and change as I learned. Learning through trial and error can be daunting and time-consuming, so I acquired Makeshift Mentors. 

These people have no direct connection to you but have the knowledge you want to acquire. Mentorships can be very expensive, so I digested all the information they gave online for free and bought their cheapest courses. 

Derek Halpern was the man!

I used online makeshift mentors like Derek Halpern, Ramit Sethi, and Tim Ferris to get started (have I aged myself?). My second group of makeshift mentors was the local entrepreneurs at a coworking space. They held seminars and gave me advice whenever I asked. The support group was incredible. In return, I became a makeshift mentor myself by teaching SEO at the coworking space. 

Finally, I invested in one-on-one mentorships. These people gave me an outside, higher-level view of what I was doing and helped me build the frameworks to achieve higher levels of myself. Yes, their view of perfection was subjective, but they are who I aspired to be like. One-on-one mentorships are the ultimate way to combat the Perfect Paradox. 

One more way to get out of the paradox is to completely remove yourself from it. Outsource work you simply do not want to do or want to be proficient in. Accounting, legal, etc. All of this will take away from the practice you could be doing on your own work. 

Since I am not perfect in all business aspects, I stuck to what I knew and could focus on, then outsourced the rest. 

Exactly What You Can Do Right Now To Be “Perfect”

First, frame the end result. Whatever you want the ideal result to be, please write it down and get into the details of it. Now, you have your idea of “perfection.”

Second, find someone achieving that result and break down their process. Find their YouTube, blog, Twitter, etc., and see exactly how they do it. Break down the perfect result into smaller bite-sized pieces. Use them as a Makeshift Mentor.

Third, pay to play. See if they have an intro course if you don’t have money. Or, if they are not a huge brand, I am sure their consulting is cheap for an hour of their time. A couple of hundred bucks now will shoot you ahead in days, months, or even years! 

Last but not at all least, accepting perfection is bull shit.