Practice makes... space for more practice.

Redefining Mastery

Yo-Yo Ma still practices scales. Serena Williams still does drills. If the masters don’t stop practicing, why do we think practice makes perfect? Does aiming for perfection incline us to becoming victims of the arrival fallacy? 

I mention it often. I’ve written it into speeches. It’s a core belief of my yoga practice and how I approach… everything. 

In English, it’s “practice makes perfect,” or in German, “Übung macht den Meister.” In Chinese, it’s “familiarity brings skill.” What I like about calling something a practice is actually that practice makes space for more practice, not necessarily for perfection. 

Where else do we use the word practice? 

Learning a musical instrument. In categorizing a professional business: a law practice, a private medical practice. Practicing a religion. Defining best practices, or sharing what is recognized as common practice in a professional sector. 

What’s striking is that “practice” often carries two intertwined meanings:

• Repetition for growth/mastery (sports, music, yoga, spirituality).

• Application of skill in real-world work (medical practice, law practice).

So “practice” means both learning and doing. We practice to improve, and once we’re skilled, we have a practice to apply that skill. But is a skill ever really mastered? What if mastery isn’t the end of practice, but the way mastery is lived?

Malcolm Gladwell popularized the idea of “10,000 hours” as the path to mastery in Outliers, drawing on research by Swedish psychologist Anders Ericsson. But Ericsson argued that Gladwell oversimplified his work. His research wasn’t about clocking a magic number of hours.  Ericsson’s lifelong study of performance emphasized that mastery depends on deliberate practice: pushing past comfort zones, working on weaknesses, getting feedback, and continually improving.

As psychologist Carol Dweck writes in her well-known book Mindset,”the top is where the fixed-mindset people hunger to be, but it’s where many growth-minded people arrive as a by-product of their enthusiasm for what they do.”

Numerous stories of the greats – Yo-Yo Ma, Serena Williams, The Dalai Lama, Michael Jordan, Richard Feynman – tell us that they kept at their practices, even when others believed they were at the top of their field. In their experiences we see examples of:

• Humility: they don’t assume they’ve arrived or “achieved” mastery.

• Maintenance: they understand skills atrophy without practice.

• Exploration: they recognize practice as a way of discovering new layers of depth.

In my coaching “practice” (wink), I often see clients realize that real progress doesn’t come from giant leaps, but from showing up, again and again, for their own practices.

It’s tempting to believe that mastery or confidence mean having all the answers, or reaching some state of perfection. But the examples we’ve looked at suggest something different: mastery is staying vulnerable, willing to learn, and committed to returning to the work.

As Steven Pressfield reminds us in The War of Art, “the most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying.”

Give yourself permission to show up and try. And do it again. And again. Practice makes imperfection meaningful.

And What Else:

Explore these questions, and embrace the challenge to dig deeper, asking what else might be relevant to answer. 

• Honor Yourself: What in your life or work do you allow to be less than perfect?

• Explore Curiously: What could you benefit from labeling as a “practice”?

• Foster Trust: What are some behaviors that you might benefit from repeating?

• Shift Perspectives: What practices do you admire in people around you?

• Clarify Decisions: What practice could you (re)start, stop, or continue today?

• Empower Action: What rewards can you foresee from sustaining your practice?

Nuggets of Work-Life

Every coaching session and workshop closes with acknowledging learnings, insights, and moments of celebration. Here are a few of my recent nuggets:

• Some of these thoughts on practice and how we grow will make their way into a Masterclass next month, which I’ll deliver to the Mentor community from the Mercedes-Benz BeVisioneers Fellowship Program. I’m looking forward to seeing what I can learn by sharing with the audience. 

• I’m also iterating a people management course from earlier this year to support professionals who work (or are curious to work) in management to feel more supported and empowered to lead themselves and their teams. It’s fun to iterate and see the course itself as a “practice,” a chance to evolve, grow, and learn.

Practice Makes … Space for More Practice

(Yes, this was already the title for this section of the newsletter!) Here’s where we explore some new adventures.

• A pastime: Fall is a season where we start to celebrate the summer’s harvest. Open the window. Allow yourself to be bored with the company of the air and the earth. Watch a cloud float by. Breathe with yourself. Notice what you notice.

• A recipe: Speaking of fall, here’s a classic German refresher, ripe for the time. One part apple juice. One part carbonated water. Now you have a refreshing, tasty, and bubbly Apfelschorle.

• A movement: Take a break from your work and stretch your arms in ways that mimic letters of the alphabet:

  • I: lift both hands and arms directly overhead

  • Y: reach your wrists or fists diagonally up and out

  • T: stretch your arms left and right. For a deeper stretch, open the palm outward and push through the wrist

  • W: pull the elbows down and back with the fingers and hands pointed upright. Lift your chin, chest, and heart gently forward and up. 

  • O: clasp the hands or forearms overhead.

  • Close it out with a little YMCA.

Ways to Engage and Support

When I pitched the question on Instagram, asking what topic I might cover in this month’s newsletter, there was a clear winner: practice - deliberate effort. Thanks for your input! It looks like authority and our relationship to rules was the second most popular. I’d love to hear from you before I explore authority in a future newsletter: where have you seen yourself struggle with authority and/or rules?

Likewise, if you have a story to share about how you’ve benefitted from practice, I’d love for you to share. Reply here or get in touch with me however you prefer.

In joy,
Stephen