Dear friend,

Today, I want to do something a little different. I want to inspire you to reach new heights!

We’ve all heard the saying “practice makes perfect” before. Far from being a great motivator, this saying can actually damage your ability to achieve anything.

Read on to discover what my fellow insider and colleague, Glenn Fisher’s solution for this is...

In the name of happiness,

Your Insider
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Why I hate this stupid phrase
By Glenn Fisher

Practice makes perfect.

I hate that phrase. It’s stupid.

Worse, it’s incredibly damaging to your ability to achieve anything.

We can put that right today...

I'm going to fix the phrase.

And to do so, I need the help of my friend R...

You see, R is a great drummer, fantastic in fact.

We’ve played music together for years and, over that time, he’s got better and better.

But when it comes to playing guitar, he’s rubbish.

Until recently, that is.

J, who’s a great guitarist, has been teaching R a few bits and bobs.

R has been practicing. Now he can play a bit of Neil Young. A Bob Dylan tune or two.

Can he perfectly? No.

But could he play a tune or two at a party to entertain a crowd singing along?

Yes.

So, if he practiced even more, eventually he would become perfect right?

Here’s what gets me riled.

First, how much do you have to practice to be perfect?

Many would say 10,000 hours.

A figure plucked from thin air? Strangely, it’s not.

A ton of research has been done looking at experts in a variety of fields – from Mozart to Bill Gates – and found that to be an expert you generally need to spend 10,000 hours on your particular subject.

Not the best news for R.

Having only started now, he's going to be claiming his pension before he’s riffin’ with Hendrix.

So, forget that for a moment and ask a much more important question...

Does he need to be perfect?

Of course not.

More questions: What is perfect? What does it matter? Will I ever be perfect? Do I want to practice for 10,000 hours? Have I got 10,000 hours? Should I even be bothering to try?

It’s supposed to be encouraging! We’re told practice makes perfect as though that will drive us on. It’s laughable.

Practice makes perfect is a negative phrase. Far from encouraging, it’s delusory, it’s restrictive.

Perhaps I’m being too harsh on a bit of a throwaway phrase. It just gets me.

But it wouldn’t be fair to beat up a phrase without offering an alternative.

So what’s my solution?

It’s possible to get rid of perfect

I propose we make the phrase encouraging again. I propose a bit of realism.

More importantly I want to bring out the key point of the phrase.

My friend R’s goal was to be able to play the guitar. He practiced. He learned some songs. He’s not perfect, but he achieved his goal. With some practice it was possible.

But forget guitars. Throw it open.

You want to improve your copywriting. You take a course, you read a book. You practice. You’re not perfect, but you’ve improved. You’ve made your goal possible.

You want to learn how to set up your own website. You read some books, look online. You practice. You set one up. It’s not perfect, but it works. You’ve made your goal possible.

You want to learn how to spot winning trades on the stock market. You study, you practice. They don’t win them all, but you're getting better. You’re making your goal possible.

That’s it: By practicing you're making your goal possible.

Practice makes possible.

Do you see the difference?

Before, in striving for perfection, the thought of practicing was pointless. Now practicing has a value: practicing makes things possible.

Just because your chances of becoming perfect at something are slim, it should never prevent you from doing it at all.

When someone tells you practice makes perfect, kindly tell them to stop being so negative and remind them that what’s important is that practice makes possible.

Of course I could be wrong. After all, I’m far from perfect myself!

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