“If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything.”
–John Wooden

A young man wrote me several months ago to say he believes I’ve “lived a perfect life.”

I set him straight. No one who is currently on this earth has lived the perfect life… and it’s not even close.

Going further, no one on this earth has ever lived a perfect day, even if it appears that way. Even the big league pitcher who throws a so-called “perfect game” is far from perfect. The pitcher recorded 27 outs without giving up a hit or putting a runner on base, but there were plenty of imperfections in the perfection.

As a writer, I’ve never written the perfect article or book.

As an athlete and martial artist, I’ve never practiced or competed perfectly.

Yet, despite all these imperfections, there IS PERFECTION behind it all.

There’s beauty in looking at your mistakes and correcting them without beating yourself up. You can look at the mistakes you’ve made and you can unemotionally work on getting better.

I took up wrestling when I was eight. The moves I learned on Day 1 are still being improved five decades later.

Same goes for the martial arts I practice. Every day is an opportunity to feel the perfection moving though me – followed by the analysis which shows that I can still improve.

We love the idea of telling ourselves that “today was perfect.” But the reality is we can simultaneously enjoy our achievements while looking at them realistically. Even when we reach a high level of skill that impresses us and makes us feel good, the current level can be surpassed.

Ultimately, pursuing perfection is the same as a tiger chasing its tail. A far more useful goal is looking for small ways to continually improve your performance. I do this with the body weight calisthenics I teach in Combat Conditioning and I love passing my latest discoveries onto the members of the Furey Faithful.

Are you continuing to make yourself better than you were a year ago, a month ago, a week ago?

You continue to improve, not by pressure or force, but by observing what you are doing while exploring the possibilities that you couldn’t see, much less do, at an earlier time.

That’s the name of the game, my friend. Appreciate the imperfections you are refining. Strive for the exquisite feeling that you did something perfectly, then continue onward… and upward.

Once you’ve reached the peak of the mountain, come back down and see if you can do it again. Only this time, a little bit better.

Matt Furey