Practice Makes . . . Good

It takes a lot of practice to be good.

This is a target from my daughter's state archery tournament. You can see that both she and her shooting partner have done pretty well. They scored 5 tens, 4 nines, and an eight on that round. That's pretty darn good shooting.

But it's not perfect.

I don't know about the other shooter, but I know how much my daughter practiced to accomplish this. A lot of hours. A lot of tears. Sore fingers. Bruised forearms. Failure, adjustment, success, and more failure preceded this target. Hours and hours of work, study, and effort.

And still, it's good, but not perfect.

It seems simple enough.

Archery, that is. You find an aiming point that puts you in the ten-ring and aim at the same spot each time. Don't twist the bow. Anchor. Smooth release. Follow through. Repeat.

Once you learn your technique and find your aiming point, you should be able to hit the ten every time. Or so it seems.

But it's not that simple.

I know. I've tried. I've hit the ten. Hit it several times, in fact. Even a few in a row. But I've never scored a perfect 50 in one round, let alone all 6 rounds of a competition. Even the great archers, the ones who win National and even World level competitions don't shoot a perfect 300 every time, very often, or even ever.

Despite hundreds, even thousands of hours of practice, the best are not perfect.

Life is a lot like that.

We all have a lot of practice at life, right? I mean, I practice every day. My ten-ring is the purpose of life: Love God, love my neighbors. My bow is the life God has given me. My arrows are what I say and do. My anchoring point is Jesus Christ. My release (letting go of the arrow) is my motivations.

Anchor, aim, release.

After I hit the ten a few times, I should be able to aim at the same point and do it over and over. I've practiced so many times it should be more reflex than conscious thought, more "muscle-memory" than intentional action. It should be easy.

Should be.

But it isn't.

Sometimes I don't only miss the ten, I miss the whole darn target! I can't blame the environment or my equipment. It's me. I get distracted. I take my eye off the target. I twist my bow of life or grip it too tightly. I don't anchor correctly on Jesus. I flub my release, the motivations for what I do, and the arrows of my words and actions fly all wonky. I make a thousand little mistakes, and the occasional big one.

That means I hit a nine instead of ten. Or an eight. On a bad day, I'll shoot a no-score, an arrow that doesn't even hit the target. Despite all the practice, which is every single day of my life.

You'd think I'd be getting better by now.

Practice makes good, but not perfect.

We'll never be perfect; not in this life, at least. No matter how long we live, no matter how many arrows we shoot, you're going to have the occasional "flier."

That's a hard reality for my daughter to accept, and me as well. It is, however, a life lesson for all of us. We're all going to mess up, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. In competition, and in life, how you handle that reality matters.

I tell my daughter, "One arrow at a time." Don't get over-confident because your last one was a ten. Don't lose faith because you shot a five. Focus on the fundamentals, and do your very best with every arrow you have.

That's advice that I've been trying to follow myself. When things are going well, don't think that means I've got this all figured out. When I screw up, don't give up. Try again. Do your best.

Anchor, aim, release. Shoot for ten every time.

Practice will never make us perfect, but if we try each day, we'll be better than we were before.