Perfect practice

 


Several years ago, I had the great pleasure of inviting an Olympic athlete to speak at one of my advanced membership development and retention workshops. A parallel we discussed between professional new member sales and athletics is the fact that "practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect." As an athlete, he shared that he spent more than 1,000 hours in pre-competition practice for every one minute of competition.

I encourage everyone to think about their "perfect practice time." If the 1,000-to-1 ratio sounds like a bit much, at least consider the words of Abraham Lincoln: "Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe."

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