Perfect makes practise

I haven't been in the blogosphere for a while and I think this morning I worked out why - perfectionism! I want my blog to be perfect before it is published. I want to be perfect at the guitar before I play. How often have we stopped ourselves from trying something new because we're afraid of not being perfect? We know that practise makes perfect, but I say let's adopt another approach. Perfect makes practise. Let's practise for the sake of practising. Give it a go.

Shunryo Suzuki-Roshi says in the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few. Julia Cameron in her book The Sound of Paper says that some of our adventures require the courage to be a beginner. She invites us in one of the exercises to fill in the blanks and answer the question, "If I didn't have to do it perfectly, I'd try...?" This week, a couple of my blanks would be:

1. If I didn't have to do it perfectly, I'd try playing the guitar every day
2. If I didn't have to do it perfectly, I'd try updating my blog regularly

So this week my friends, I invite you to fill in your blanks. Perfect your practise with a beginner's mind and while you're doing that, listen to Bugge Wesseltoft & Sidsel Endresen Try.