Practice Makes Progress
I never liked the phrase "Practice Makes Perfect" or the argument that only perfect practice makes perfect. There's a certain amount of implied pressure there, and for a person like me who has a rocky history with making mistakes (👋 Social Anxiety) that kind of perceived pressure put me in my head rather than in my body.
I remember shows where I was so focused on my position being perfect that I was getting in my horse's way. I placed well in Equitation, but Pleasure classes I was usually bottom of the pack, because frankly I wasn't enjoying myself like I should have. I was so focused on getting from A to B in my dressage tests that my shoulders were somewhere around my ears.
But now I hear people say "Practice Makes Progress" and ohh that feels so much better. So much less pressure and expectation, room to breathe and play, to be creative. No voice in the back of my head saying "If you can't be Perfect then you shouldn't even try". No more of this crippling fear of making a mistake, rather a leisurely chuckle of "Oops" followed by the curiosity of "How can I do that better?" A big improvement over my previous self deprecating narrative of "You suck at that, so don't try it again or you'll look like an idiot". The idiot I felt like at my first show where the judge had to explain to me what a diagonal was🤦🏼
But thanks to my foray down the rabbit hole of Human Design over the past year or so, I now know that I'm not supposed to make decisions with my mind. That "should-ing" all over myself is totally unproductive and a mental pressure to be shrugged off. With that knowledge, it's opened up space to be creative, the space to make mistakes, and the space to be unapologetically myself.
And it feels really good.
I remember shows where I was so focused on my position being perfect that I was getting in my horse's way. I placed well in Equitation, but Pleasure classes I was usually bottom of the pack, because frankly I wasn't enjoying myself like I should have. I was so focused on getting from A to B in my dressage tests that my shoulders were somewhere around my ears.
But now I hear people say "Practice Makes Progress" and ohh that feels so much better. So much less pressure and expectation, room to breathe and play, to be creative. No voice in the back of my head saying "If you can't be Perfect then you shouldn't even try". No more of this crippling fear of making a mistake, rather a leisurely chuckle of "Oops" followed by the curiosity of "How can I do that better?" A big improvement over my previous self deprecating narrative of "You suck at that, so don't try it again or you'll look like an idiot". The idiot I felt like at my first show where the judge had to explain to me what a diagonal was🤦🏼
But thanks to my foray down the rabbit hole of Human Design over the past year or so, I now know that I'm not supposed to make decisions with my mind. That "should-ing" all over myself is totally unproductive and a mental pressure to be shrugged off. With that knowledge, it's opened up space to be creative, the space to make mistakes, and the space to be unapologetically myself.
And it feels really good.
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