What makes this observation penetrating is its recognition that the *pursuit itself* has worth independent of the destination—that aiming for the unreachable somehow refines us in the reaching. Most people hear "perfection is impossible" as permission to lower their standards; Lombardi inverts this into a call for higher ones. A musician rehearsing a difficult passage ten times over, knowing she'll never play it flawlessly, discovers through that very repetition a version of herself that's far better than if she'd settled for "good enough" on the third attempt. The wisdom here isn't about goal-setting at all—it's about the transformative power of demanding better from yourself than you believe you can deliver.