Philosphical Friday: Are pretty groups/clean targets holding you back?

Just a random musing I thought might be an interesting discussion.Is the pursuit of and satisfaction in shooting nice, tight groups actually rewarding us in bad training?What I mean is, we like to shoot "well". A single ragged hole tells us we "shot well" that day. We like that feedback.Its fun to keyhole a nunch of rounds, check out our palm sized group with self satisfaction, and declare "yes I was pretty on it today." That's the kind of target we post on twitstergram #SundayGunday #PewPewPew We don't post a target with a bunch of flyers, errant holes or all around birdshot looking mess. We don't even like looking at that target. It doesn't make us feel good. We HATE that target.But is this mentality BAD for us?What did you do today?I did THIS! *produces target with ragged center hole of dead eyed accurate shooting.Ok, WHAT does that mean you did? Did you go all John Wick? OR, in reality, does that target just mean you spent all morning shooting unrealistic and unchallenging shots?The point I'm taking forever to get to: Do we as shooters get so obssessed with the feel good, positive feedback of bullseyes and tight groups, that we actually overvalue shooting efforts WELL WITHIN our capability, at the expense of actually getting better, by pushing to edges of what we suck at? How often do we range out to a yardage we KNOW we can hit at, bang some Xs, then push a little further or run drills a little faster, and start to lose accuracy, start to log errant shots, and respond by walking the target back in to something more manageable?WHY?Isn't where we start to have trouble exactly where we should spend the majority of our practice time?Whether that means shooting further, or shooting faster, or running more complicated drills is all relative to the shooter, but my point is, the point where the groups start to get a bit ugly is no fun to shoot at or look at, but that's the point where challenge, and thus progress lives. If a weightlifter's daily workout calls for 4 sets of 10, he doesn't expect 4 perfect sets of 4 perfect reps does he? He expects failures, wobbles, struggles and a few ugly ones. If he gets to the last rep of the last set and every rep was achieved, clean and form perfect, his training partner says "bro, you need to add some weight. Push yourself" You don't get bit lifting within what you can do easily.Same idea.A ragged, ugly target at the end of range day means you were working at a level of shooting you don't have down yet. A clean, pretty target is an "ego" target. It looks sexy and feels good to show off, but does it really mean you just spent a lot of shots working on things you've already mastered? Thoughts? via /r/CCW http://bit.ly/2MWxrFh