Seth Godin talked about going faster in a recent post. He said, “Going faster increase the chances you’ll find a landmark and become unlost.” That is so true. In my younger days when I taught English in Asia I sometimes decided I would take a new road home from work every day for a week. The main road home took 20 minutes on my scooter. There were many opportunities to get lost.
I say this a bit tongue-in-cheek. Right now I am on a campout with my boys and the local Boy Scout troop. We hiked a mile or so up to a secluded campground where we hung hammocks and pitched tents. Right now I’m enjoying the sounds of the woods as I relax in my hammock, surrounded by down quilts. Sounds great, right? The hike in was on an overgrown trail with sticker bushes everywhere.
All skills, habits, hobbies, and jobs that are worth doing take time and repetition. They don’t come easily or without effort. The process of acquiring these skills can be monotonous. Write 500 words. Throw 50 changeups. Create a lesson plan. Play your scales. Cook pasta. Repeat tomorrow and the next day and the next. It takes thousands of repetitions before something amazing happens, before the work becomes art. We usually don’t know exactly when the magic will happen and the wait can be tough.
As I write this I’m listening to three student jazz groups playing. (I have one child in each group so I sit in between the three rehearsal rooms so I can catch snatches of each group as they play.) Last week these groups held auditions. One of the students who auditioned got his placement today and wasn’t willing to accept it. He is the oldest bass player that tried out but was placed in the lowest of the three groups.
It’s the nature of being human that we will have bad days. And sometimes bad weeks. Or bad months. Maybe even bad years. The list of things that can go wrong or happen to us seems endless. (Not trying to be a downer here, but it’s true!) There is real pain and suffering in the world and it happens to me and you. The good news is that we are never alone and that we always have a choice.
For years, and this is pretty embarrassing to admit, I had the goal to write blog posts. I learned a lot about website development. WordPress became a tool I knew well. Recently Hugo and static site generators have been my favorite hobby. I loved everything about website development. (Here comes the embarrassing part.) But I hated writing content. I would fire up my favorite text editor or focused writing app and stare at the screen.
One of my favorite writers, Austin Kleon, wrote in his book Steal Like an Artist of how we are all mashups. From our genetics to our creative influences, we are the sum of many parts. You are, in fact, a mashup of what you choose to let into your life. You are the sum of your influences. The German writer Goethe said ‘We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.’ We are also shaped by our habits.
One of the issues I see in the youth I work with is a need for constant entertainment. It makes sense; all the entertainment in the world exists on that small screen we carry around in our pocket. We have lost the ability to tolerate boredom. This is a problem because an idle mind is the fertile ground that ideas grow in. In my life I’ve seen the truth of the old saying that creative ideas come while you’re in bed, in the bath, or on the bus.
twitter.com/katastrop… For 10 years I lived in the wonderful land of Taiwan. It’s safe, filled with really great people, and relatively cheap. Sure I missed my family and friends back in the US, but technology meant we could have video chats and phone calls which helped a lot. The thing I missed the most was the libraries! The library in my hometown is more than just a place to check out books.
Today I watched an amazing jazz pianist play in a way that filled me with joy. Yes, he was teaching a class full of young vocalists who don’t always hit the right notes or come in at the right time. This wasn’t a gala performance at the Kennedy Center. But his playing was both superb and infectious. It made me want to get out an instrument and practice! Seeing mastery in action is amazing and awe inspiring.