Does Practice make Perfect?

In one of my last articles, I spoke about about the power of preparation. Now if preparation positions you for success, then practice sends you well on your way.
The truth of the matter is that no-one will reach their fullest potential unless they are willing to practice. People refine old skills and accuire new ones through practice. That's where the tension between where we are and where we ought to be propels us forward. It enables development. If you desire to improve and develop, then you must practice. Done correctly, practice keeps making you better than you were yesterday. If you don't practice, you'll shortchange your potential. Harvey Macky was quoted saying "A good leader understands that anything that has been done in a particular way for a given amount of time is being done wrong. Every single performance can be improved." Since there is always a better way of doing a particular thing, your job is to find out how to do it!
Practice both shows and builds commitment and the true test of commitment is action. Saying that you're committed to a certain thing but never practicing, isn't commitment, it's just talk. It's when you're following through and practicing, your commitment becomes stronger.
You really can't discover your abilities and improve your skills when your in an enviornment where you can't make mistakes. Improvement always require some degree of failure, and you must seek a practice area where experimentation and exploration are allowed.
If you do the little things well, the big ones tend to take care of themselves. As you first start to practice, the gains you make may be small, but they will grow like money earning interst in a bank. Dale Carnegie once said "Don't be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one, it makes you that much stronger."
Many people regard practice as an essentially negative experience. It doesn't have to be that way. The best way to make practice exciting is to think in terms of discovery and development.......Practice makes perfect!