Choose A Path That Inspires You

If you’re looking for growth and for meaning of any kind you need to be honest with yourself. Honest to the point that you make proper sacrifices and openly reveal yourself to the world. If the world doesn’t know what you’re seeking – if you don’t ask for it, then how does it know what you want?

We need to be constantly asking these questions to the world. We’ve got to be curious in a way that is personal to us. It’s about investigating and listening to our thoughts se we can come up with the best possible path to achieve what it is that we truly want. We must be original in our path, we can’t just copy the path that others have taken, because that was personal to them and it likely won’t motivate us the same way it did them.

Normally it’s your instincts that are going to guide you. Like when you think about becoming a musician in the future, what’s the first thing that comes to mind for you that you might need to do? For some it might be practicing and getting a feel for the instrument, for another it might be to learn the music theory first and for others it might be to seek out a mentor or tutor for their given instrument.

See how we have to make our own path? Our starting point is what’s critical and that’s really the first question we ask on any growth journey. You have to choose the starting path that provides the most meaning to you. It’s a completely free choice.

You have to choose the starting path that provides the most meaning to you.

Obviously if you choose to pick up the instrument and practice first you will still need to learn the musical theory somewhere down the track and vice versa. But, your initial answer (to the question, how will I play this instrument?) will form the basis for the rest of your learning.

All learning after this point will be based on your original learnings. There’s pros and cons to each choice, but they will balance out somewhere down the track – so just put your focus on the activities that will keep you motivated to start with.

If we have got a feel for the instrument before we learn the theory we will likely be able to place our fingers in the correct locations more quickly and easily, but will take longer to understand new songs. On the counter, if we choose to learn the musical theory first we will be confident to apply our knowledge to a wider library of songs, but we will be slower in our finger movements.

No path is better than another, and the musical example is just one case-study. We can ask these questions anywhere and we just have to choose the path that seems best to us in the beginning – the one that motivates us. Maybe even do a little plan like I have in this article and see which attributes you want to pick up first. Which ones do you think will inspire you the most? and then go with them.

I’d love to hear about your goals and how you plan to achieve them. Update me in the comments.

Always,

~ Adam, 2019

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