It's Monday, First name / friend!
Sometimes, it doesn’t matter how hard you work.
Certain things just need time, and you just need more years on this planet living and breathing and doing your work.
For you fellow impatient people out there, maybe that’s part relief and part infuriating.
Let us remind you that being an incredible musician [or incredible anything] takes the melding of years of information gathering, experiences and practice. It may take years for that thing your teacher said to really materialize. It may take 10 performances of that piece to finally phrase the way you imagined it in your head. It may take 6 months for the thing you understand intellectually to manifest physically when you're playing.
But, you know what they say. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Anything worth waiting for usually takes longer than any of us expect, and there are WAY more bumps in the road than our imagination ever equates for.
That failed audition, recital that didn’t go just the way you wanted it to, or that teaching interview you bombed? Sure, eat some chocolate and cry it out. But then, understand that all of those experiences are tiny stops on your journey. Most of the time, they aren’t a reason to question everything you’ve chosen, if you’re good enough, or if you should destroy your life plan and start over.
Instead, they are a reminder that you’ve earned another feather in your cap, you’ve laid one more brick, and tomorrow, you’ll have the chance again. When you think about things from that angle, it's wise to invite failure, and invite it early.
As Stephen McCranie so brilliantly said, “The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried.”
Experience, love, heartbreak, new books, new friends. Get going with that project, article, book, collaboration, idea, course, trip, inquiry, research, business, or audition.
These experiences can change a lot. And so can simply having more time under the sun. ☀️ Trust the process. Keep going. Keep failing. And most of all, keep being patient.
Have a great week, friends.
