More Perfect?

Yesterday we offered a small, but provocative idea colloquially known as food for thought. It sprang from a simple anonymous quote about perfect effort besting the goal of perfection obtainment on the list of ways to improve. For the sake of addressing the specific interests of our core audience please be advised that this is targeted directly toward those wishing to up their game in regards to health and fitness. If you are interested in that general category, and wish to experiment with a bit of testing and training, read on. If not here is a link to one of my favorite bands doing one of my favorite songs. 

The idea that perfection as the goal of our endeavors to become faster, stronger, better, more successful and win more games is as old as sporting competition itself. The superlative is used in several literary works, The Perfect Mile (Running), The Perfect Season (Basketball), The Perfect Game (Baseball) creating the false sense of hope in those among us of less-than-perfect stature. So let’s start with the official definition. Used as an adjective: Having all the required or desirable elements, qualities, or characteristics; as good as it is possible to be, or as a verb: Make (something) completely free from faults or defects, or as close to such a condition as possible. 

You quickly see what we are up against here, (Funk and Wagnalls are undefeated in tournament Scrabble play)  but it is in the ambiguity we find solace and potential salvation, for with the introduction of  ‘as good as it is possible to be’ and ‘as close to such condition as possible’, both definitions remove it from absolute status and slam open the door for interpretation. ‘As good as’ and ‘as close to’ are ‘good enough’? Good enough to be perfect? WHAT? 

In our training, in the attempt to use, say, indoor cycling as the vehicle to push our fitness, reach our goals, stimulate a purer mind/body connection and manage our stress, we all eventually face the issue of being asked to measure and manage the good-better-best question. Leading, naturally, to the necessity of rating our effort, performance, response and overall benefit. This is human, a perfectly (adjective) normal response. We are all time-crunched professionals with enough already on our plates to feed a small militia. Therefore we make, or buy into, assumptions based upon quality. The best bang for your training buck is about as accurate as the claim for washboard abs in thirty days. 

Cutting to the chase means taking an honest look into our motivation. If you simply seek to fill hole in your day with semi-choreographed movements designed to overheard your internal cooling system as penance for your consumption habits, that is fine, but, if you deeply desire continual improvement in the participation of the sport that fills your spirit with meaning, here is the inconvenient truth:

SEEK NOT PERFECTION - BUT PERFECT EFFORT. Compile, arrange and address all the required and desired elements necessary for your achievement of your quest. That means everything. Food as fuel, proper rest and recovery time, professional diagnosis, a deep commitment, non-toxic stress management, and the synergy of your mind, body and spirit. Once all those are assembled the enhancement of your skills can be addressed, and then the details of speed, strength, endurance and balance. And then the qualities of focus, concentration, will, gumption, courage and gratitude. 

You see? That is a tuna boat load of fillets to manage. And you want it to be perfect? 

Let’s refine the quality of our effort. Make better decisions. Limit the questionable, and augment the obvious. Happiness, respect, joy, curiosity and faith play important roles as we move intrepidly towards that light we call ‘the satisfaction that comes from great effort’. If you can get to that cloud you have already figured out how to fly. It is in the efforts, as the road is the goal. Focus on the here and now and the there and then will care for itself. 

THAT is the perfection of practice. What we should all seek.