Practice Makes Progress

We all know the famous saying, “practice makes perfect.”
I’ve always preferred Mary Poppins quote, “practically perfect in every way.”

What took the cake or “morsel” for this Morselist, was when I was teaching a group of 3rd graders a few months ago, the idea of practicing and doing.
I would begin a sentence and they would finish it for me. It went something like this;

“Keep your eye on ….. the ball!”

“Reading, writing and …..arithmetic!”
“Stop, drop and …..Roll!”
“Do Re…Mi”
“Abc…123”

You get the idea..it was meant to be fun and engaging to get the group actively involved, admittedly some of my prompts were silly.”
The AHA moment for me happened about halfway through the class when I prompted, “Practice makes… and Ali, a quiet studious 3rd grader yelled, “PROGRESS!”

I took a pause & stopped in my tracks just as I was about to finish with “PERFECT!”

“You’re absolutely right, Ali. How did you get to be so smart?” She blew me away.

“My Mom says there is no such thing as perfect. Perfect doesn’t exist, we can only make progress.”

Wow. This truly changed my thinking forever. As most kids of my generation and the generation before and the generation before and so on and so forth, we were taught, “Perfection is the goal. The key to success. The highest achievement and let me tell you, that has made for one tough Morselist. It’s impossible to reach perfection and some of us nearly kill ourselves trying. It’s interesting that I always found Mary Poppins to be so smart & evolved in a way most Childhood Fantasy Characters never quite were. She was a realist, in a way. However, the idea pounded into my head was “practice makes perfect.” Ali pointed out to me in her quiet deep manner that only an 8-year-old can, “silly rabbit, there’s no such thing as perfect…progress will always make you do the best you can.” Striving for progress will make most of our lives less stressful, thus, more fulfilling.

So however you want to look at it: Mary Poppins’ way, “Practically perfect in every way.” Or Ali’s way, “Practice makes progress.” I like to blend their philosophies and erase the archaic adage of “practice makes perfect.” We’ll all be a happier group of Morselites.

Now, go have a lovely day of progress!!