PRACTICE

I remember reading once about a newlywed couple preparing their Sunday dinner. The wife was preparing to cook a roast. The husband noticed that his wife cut the end off of the roast before placing both pieces in the roasting pan. He thought that was a bit odd and asked his wife why she did it that way. She explained that is how her mother always did it. A few weeks later, the newlywed couple was having dinner at the home of the wife's parents. The mother was preparing roast. The young husband watched as the mother cut the end off of the roast before placing both pieces into the roasting pan. The young husband asked his mother in law why she prepared the roast by cutting the end off. She explained that is how her mother always did it. The young husband, now filled with curiosity, just had to know why the grandmother prepared roast by cutting the end off. He called the grandmother and inquired.  The grandmother explained, when she was raising the kids, she couldn't afford a roasting pan. She used a small cake pan to cook roast. The pan being so small, she had to cut the end off of the roast in order to get it to fit in the pan. Daughter and granddaughter did it because that is how they had seen it done. Although they had roasting pans and the cutting the end off of the roast wasn't necessary they did it anyway not knowing why. 

There is a statement often repeated in training situations, "Practice makes perfect." The statement isn't actually completely accurate. If I learn to do something the wrong way, and continually practice it that way, I will be doing it wrong although perhaps 'perfectly wrong'. The accurate statement would be, "Perfect practice makes perfect." Are you living your life the way you were taught and it just doesn't seem to be working very well? Did you learn the correct principles? Is it possible, you didn't learn the best way to live life and have been continually practicing how to live life in an ineffective way? Practice does not make perfect, Perfect practice makes perfect!