A few years ago I wrote a blog post about practicing and its impact on us. As I continue to write daily, I’ve thought quite a bit about the importance of practicing regularly. This blog serves as a part of the continued writing practice I need to to develop myself as a reflective writer and author. In fact, I attribute much of my growth as a writer to my regular blogging.
One interesting thing about practice, though, is just as it might make “perfect,” it also makes “permanent.” There is a potential problem here that can offset some of the benefit of continued practice.
If we continue to do the same thing the same way over and over again, we get very good at just one thing. But, if we continue to practice, and slightly modify the way we do things, then we become much better at a variety of ways of doing things.
Take, for instance, my writing. The majority of my writing is done just by me, and I have built up quite a bit of experience writing singularly. While this is great, I’m also curious about my ability to write with more than one person. For instance, how well would I co-write a blog, an article, or a book with someone else (or a number of someones)?
My thinking is that if I am going to be as effective a writer as possible, then I need to be able to write not only about a number of different topics, but write via a number of different formats; blogging or self-writing isn’t enough. . .I have to learn to write differently.
While practice may move us towards perfection, it can also move us towards permanence. And that is something we have to be wary of.