“Practice makes better.” It’s a comment I heard my eldest child say to his little sister as he was helping her with her ABCs.
As I started to correct him and tell him the phrase is “practice makes perfect” I thought better of it. He was right. Practice doesn’t make you perfect. It makes you better.
I’m sure it’s a phrase he picked up from his teachers at school and I’m forever thankful for it.
We don’t need to be perfect but we can always be better. We can be better listeners, better friends, or better parents. We can practice and get better at a sport, better with school work, or better with a hobby.
But will we be perfect? No, and that’s ok! We’re going to mess up. We’re going to make mistakes. That’s life. Making mistakes builds character. It teaches us to overcome and persevere. Do I want my son and daughter to do better and improve? Of course, I do! But I don’t want them feeling they have to be “perfect” at something, even when they practice.
Yes, it can be argued there are ways to be “perfect”. You can throw a “perfect game” in bowling or baseball. You can have a perfect shot in golf for that elusive hole-in-one. But all of those “perfect” moments only occurred because practice made you better.
We need to teach our kids {and ourselves} to strive for progress, not perfection.
Lucky for me, I learned it from my 6-year-old.
