“Don’t let perfection prevent you from trying to get better.” I heard someone say this in a conversation as I was walking out of the grocery store. They were talking about golf, but I thought it was a nice phrase to think about.

For some who are all or nothing, the perfectionists, it might be hard to navigate through the obstacles of jiujitsu. Perfection is a process and in jiujitsu where it’s choke or be choked it can be hard to remember that.

I remember talking to a ceramics master and he said, “in training, a student has to make 100 of the exact same cups.” Then 100 bowls, then big cups, and small cups, but they all had to exactly the same and to the specification of the teacher. This process of skill development was the only way to achieve mastery in ceramics.

Similar to the process of ceramics, jiujitsu is a game in mastering skills. Focus on a single skill or movement, just like the ceramics apprentice, and do it 100 times perfectly. To do so you’ve probably done it 10x or more than 100. While there is a final product, an outcome, this is an educational concept used in teaching that brings the focus to the process.

When you’re only focused on one or a few products you can easily lose focus on the process, but when there’s an overwhelming number of repetitions that require similarity, the only choice is to focus on the process.

As a child I remember a penmanship book I had to turn in every week. Initially I just scrambled through the letters to get it over with. I wanted to go play. When the teacher kept me inside to redo my work, I had to slow down, focus on the process of writing each letter and the results were a much cleaner set of letters. The letters weren’t perfect but they were better.

In ceramics perfection isn’t reached until you are able to replicate 1 item 100 times. But, each item produced is on the path to better. I don’t know how that transfers to jiujitsu exactly, but there is a strong idea of repetition and drilling. The move that’s been practiced many times gets better and better. Your movement becomes refined. Eventually perfection is achieved.

So how does perfection prevent you from getting better? Probably when you loses sight of the process and only focus on the outcome. You know where you are and where you want to be, but aren’t quite there. Remind yourself that the gap between the two is the process of improvement. The process which leads to better.

So don’t let perfection prevent you from being better. Perfection isn’t the first or second step but many many miles down the road. Allow yourself to embrace the process towards perfection, also known as getting better. Doing so will bring you closer to a level of mastery with each repetition.