Mindset Monday: Practice Makes Perfect, or At Least Better. Part 1 of 2.

Earlier last week I opened a computer program I hadn’t used in a while. Even though it was a program I’d used frequently in the past, it took me a few minutes to get my bearings. I had to look through menus and find where the menu options and commands I wanted to use were located.

Fortunately, I was working by myself and had the time to rediscover where everything was located. Every program has a logic to how the menus are organized and how actions are named. I had time to remind myself of how all that worked.

But what if I had been asked to demonstrate this program for someone else. What if I had been asked to teach someone else how to use this program?

I definitely would need some time to practice.

It is not unusual to practice a skill.

It is not unusual for myself or anyone else, even though I know many people who expect themselves and everyone else they work with to load into personal memory the use of a program as quickly as that program loads into computer memory.

I believe this is a relatively new attitude. I recently read a book about couture sewing, which is very high-end and expensive sewing, usually done by hand. And the recommendation in that book was to practice on a piece of scrap fabric before working on the actual garment. It’s quite common for crochet and knit patterns to recommend swatching to practice the pattern with the yarn being used.

It’s not unusual in many areas of life for practice to be recommended, or even mandated. For high profile jobs in technology, classes and books will often recommend practicing before performing in front of crowds or clients. It is usually people who use technology only in passing who expect that no practice and no reminders are needed.