Perfection is Unattainable (Even In Sports). Try Continuous Improvement Instead.

Salvador Dali once said, “Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it.” Dali obviously never played sports.

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Written in partnership with Toyota and #TheToyotaEffect.

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I didn’t need to find the closest mirror to figure out there was a problem. All it took was the reaction of the people around me to realize something was dangerously wrong.

Over the course of two weeks I had witnessed a sinus infection morph into an ear infection which led to a ruptured ear drum after an ill-advised flight to Las Vegas. Intense pain soon followed, and it only got worse.  A week later, I was admitted at the local hospital with nerve damage and facial paralysis…three weeks from my wedding.

The hardest part, outside of wondering if I’d be healthy enough for my wedding, was the inactivity.

After a successful surgery, my doctor pleaded with me to do as little as possible and sentenced me to three weeks in bed. When I looked at my reflection after the wedding, I barely recognized the man in the mirror. I had shed 20 pounds in those weeks of recovery, and the tan, athletic build I grew comfortable with was now a pale sickly one I did not recognize.

That’s when I turned to something that has always led me down a successful path.

Sports.

So I signed up and began training for the Los Angeles Marathon. I wanted to prove to myself I was healthy and also follow up on a promise to never take my physical abilities for granted.

As I started to train, I could feel my mind, spirit and body getting stronger. The more I ran, the easier I ran. The more I laced up my running shoes, the less I hurt the next day. The longer the run, the more prepared I became.

The improvement took time, but each week I would look in the mirror and see my old form returning. My improvement didn’t just happen physically, every part of my being continued to improve as my training continued. There was a direct correlation between my active improvement running and my improvement of my total self.

Practice makes perfect.

In athletics, hard work is seen instantaneously on the playing field. Hard work is rewarded. Where else do we have such an opportunity to improve ourselves, every single day?

Continuous improvement is one of the goals in athletics, but is also a lesson that is widespread

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How Toyota’s Idea of Continuous Improvement Can Help Others

Carmaker Toyota is creating processes for continuous improvement, and then is sharing them with other businesses and non-profits instead of keeping them proprietary. They call it The Toyota Effect, and they have made a series of films about it.

One film features Ace Metal Craft, one of the companies Toyota is working with to help build a stronger business They were struggling to keep up with their production needs, and products were being shipped late. Toyota came in and taught them their production system to help them keep up with demand.

Scott Dickson says, “At Toyota, we believe that us helping other companies with our production system will help retain jobs here in the United States.” And more jobs equals more money in the pockets of Americans. Ultimately, it’s a good thing for Toyota, and for these companies. The process of continuously improving will help them stay in business, which is a great thing for Americans.

Without the challenge to constantly do better, businesses can sometimes fall into a slump, like I did before I got sick, and The Toyota Effect can help them get to a healthier, stronger place.

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I’d like to say my marathon training led to a top finish in my age group. Or that professional coaches were standing at the finish line marveling at my time and wanting to sign me to train exclusively. That, however, is not necessarily what improvement is about.

We get involved with sports to be a part of something greater than ourselves. To be a part of a broad community from every walk of life. We sacrifice our time and our bodies to see a difference in every aspect of our being. Most importantly, we get involved in sports because in every aspect of our life there are things that are out of control. In sports, like in business, whatever you put in you receive and your efforts to improve will be rewarded.

While practice makes perfect is a great saying, perfection is seldom attainable. There are outliers, like The National Football League’s Miami Dolphins who went 17-0 or when the NCAA Men’s Basketball’s University of Indiana Hoosiers went 32-0. But the real perfection is working hard and seeing results, sometimes as an individual, and sometimes as a team, whether it’s a sports team, or the business working with Toyota to build a stronger America.

Perfection was out of reach for me in my completion of the marathon….but I did beat Oprah’s time, which was one of my goals. In sports, the goal is what you make of it, and with hard work, it is attainable.

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Here are tips for Continuous Improvement in Sports.

 

Don’t forget to watch The Toyota Effect films here. 

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Photo Credit: Julian Mason/flickr