Practice Makes Perfect

 It's been awhile since I've been on here. Since this blog is supposed to be a way for me to practice writing while getting my thoughts out of my head so they can swim somewhere else, it's probably not a good thing that it's been so long. They say that practice makes perfect, which is a way for teachers to get their students to "do the thing" on a regular basis. But really, I think it's that practice makes discipline. Doing the same thing every once in awhile in an attempt to improve the execution of the act isn't going to bring that execution to a level deemed as perfect, but that's what practice is. Technically, I'm practicing writing right now, despite not having done it for nearly a month. But if I continue to only write a post once a month, it's not going to yield wonderful results. Repeated and consistent practice, however, will have a much better chance of long-term improvement. That's discipline. So my argument is that practice makes discipline and discipline is what makes perfection.

I would also argue that discipline requires more than just consistent practice. Discipline is born out of desire, time, and action. I used to take piano lessons in middle school, and while I did put the time into practicing, I never really had a great desire to play; it was something my parents made me do because I wanted to play the drums. I don't really mind now, since I have learned that I really don't have the coordination to play drums and the piano tends to be a more versatile instrument to be able to play. The thing is, because I didn't have the desire, I never developed the discipline to stay with it and become a good piano player. I can still play a few songs and I can read music (slowly), but I never tell people I play piano (I do say I can play if it comes up in conversation). In the case of my writing, I do have a desire to write, just as I have a desire to paint and read, but I don't dedicate the time I need to into any of those things, and so the action and discipline don't happen like they should. If that continues, things that I like to do are going to become things that I can do, but not things that I do.

So now I'm sitting here writing a very meta blog post about writing, but it's what I want to do. It's what I decided to put time into. It's the action I took, and hopefully it's an action that I'll build the discipline to do more often and more regularly. Because discipline makes perfect and I want to at least get better. I'm going to go read a book now.