Practice Makes…….!
I’ve always heard the phrase "practice makes perfect", but never put much thought into it because it never really resonated as my truth. Where did “practice makes perfect” come from. I decided to look up… this “offensive phrase” 😁 and here is what I found! “Practice makes Perfect” is a Latin term that dates back to the mid-1500’s and its root is derived from the phrase “use makes mastery”. So, the idea is that repeated practice leads to a mastery in whatever skill is being practiced. The word “mastery” can be interchanged with words such as superiority, proficiency, knowledge, or ascendency, but….you know which word it’s not interchanged with?........Perfection! 🤯
Instead, a phrase that has resonated with me is something I heard years ago, and as profound and life changing that it was, for some reason I just can’t think of who said it or where it came from. Probably Pastor Willie George……Oh, well! It’s a phrase much like the “practice makes perfect”, but instead it has a fun, more playful ring to it. “Practice makes better”!
Blessed be my mom, dad and brother as they are all type A personalities, which tends to be perfectionists, competitive, and focused on achievement. They come by it naturally, and this has always been their normal because this is how God made them. An all-too-common motto in our home was, “If you are going to do something, you need to do it right the first time”. If I heard it once I heard it…..well….alot….. and doing things right the first time was never my jam. I remember very clearly the first time I was taught to clean a toilet. It took some practice but I am so bold as to write that as of right now, I can probably clean a toilet better than 90% of the population! 🚽😜
The problem with this way of being for me and I’m guessing many others is that it all too often can cause us to shrink back and stifle us from stepping out from the unknown into unfamiliar territory. A place that we are guaranteed to not do well in the beginning, but this is not for me, and hopefully not for you either!
Striving for perfection has not worked out well for my mind, body or spirit. If my expectation was to do things perfectly, I would never start anything. When I first visited Toastmasters, I couldn’t believe how well the members spoke. They spoke with gravitas and assurance as if they had a message that I needed to hear. Some speeches were heavy and tugged on my heart strings while others were light and airy leaving me rubbing my cheeks from laughing so hard.
I would never have believed that the talented group of speakers that I was listening to once really struggled with public speaking, as there was no evidence…..but that is precisely their story. I haven’t spoken with one member who said that being a good public speaker came easy to them from the beginning. They had to practice.
January 2023 came time for my first speaking competition, the Toastmasters International Speech Contest. It was for “Evaluations”, where us competitors would listen to a gentleman’s 5–7-minute speech. The way it worked was that after the speech, we were taken into a separate room where we would all wait together. One by one we were then escorted into the room to “evaluate the speech” to a group of our peers as well as the judges. While waiting for my turn I remember talking to Michael Phillips. Michael is currently the Sergeant at Arms for my club “Speaking Up” and has been a member of Toastmasters for 42 years. I asked him what the secret sauce was for succeeding and getting better at public speaking and what his best advice was for someone just coming in. His response was genius as he said…. just keep coming back! 💡
At this point in my journey I choose not to strive for perfection, which can be challenging given the nature of the culture that we live in. It also helps since my pendulum leans a little more toward type B, which is more relaxed, easy going and patient. Whatever your challenges are though, we can all benefit from these scriptures: Phil 4:13 MSG says “Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am"” and Philippians 4:8-9 MSG says “Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies”. I know I have. The key is to step out from your comfort zone and continue to move forward but never forget……Practice Makes ……Better!!