As the story goes, a pottery teacher divided her class into two groups.

The first group would be judged by the number of pots they produced. They would have to submit all the pots they produced during the term; the best ten pots would be rated A, the next ten would be rated B, and so on.

The second group would be judged on the quality of their finest pot. They had no compulsion to produce more than one pot during the entire duration of the course. They were only required to submit one of their best pots, on which they shall be graded.

At the end of the term, both groups were invited to share their finest pots.

By far, the best pots were produced by the group of students whose assignment had been quantity rather than quality.

The reason is obvious. Repetition helps in becoming better (especially when learning something new). Yet, most of us don’t like repetition. Given a choice, we would choose to be in the second group. We’d prefer to produce only one pot and that too the perfect one. We do it all the time in everyday life, whether in our jobs, hobbies, and passions.

Without realizing that it’s just not possible to always produce your best work in the first attempt. You could do it every once in awhile, but certainly not consistently.

In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear talks about this - it is not the quest to achieve the perfect goal that makes you better; it’s the skills you develop from doing the volume of work, repeatedly.

In other words, focus on quantity, the quality will follow automatically.

Best,
Kaddy

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