The other day, I was thinking about the saying “practice makes perfect.” I’m a firm believer that there’s no such thing as perfection from a human standpoint. Everything we do has some level of imperfection. So setting your sights on perfection is most likely a path to disappointment.

This school year I have been promoting the idea – get better. My desire is for my students to pour themselves into their work so that everyday they take one step forward and everyday get better. And that means get better at whatever they do – resting, working, and playing.

So as I was thinking about “practice makes perfect,” I reminded myself that practice doesn’t make perfect. Instead, it makes better. Of course, I’m not the first person to say this. With a quick search, I found that author Frank Peretti was attributed with this quote.

I’m not against striving for perfection, but I think we often don’t strive for anything because we give up, knowing perfection isn’t possible. Instead, if we strive to get better – everyday, get better – we can keep going more easily . Seth Godin calls it the relentless pursuit of better (RPB).

Entire projects are often too big to get our minds around whether it’s a 70,000 word novel, pursuing a PhD, or developing an FDA approved medication. Sure it’s easy to start on the journey, but it’s really hard to finish.

To climb any  metaphorical mountain we need to first count the cost, knowing what it will take to reach the summit and then adjust our daily focus on the smaller goals, which when combined will add up to conquering the entire mountain.

Knowing that practice truly doesn’t make perfect, it only makes you get better, that’s my pursuit. Everyday, get better.