We all have music within us, don’t we? Many of us sing when we are by ourselves. We tried our hand at an instrument, be it the keyboard or the flute or the guitar. If given a chance we would all love to perform for hundreds of thousands of fans thronging the stage to get a closer glimpse of our hairdo. Why then most of us get stuck half way through our musical journey. The reason is quite simply because of Resistance.
Every artist must face this wild creature called “Resistance” that is here to kill our creativity and mercilessly stop us from reaching our full potential. Resistance constantly buzzes in our mind, “Who do you think you are? Mozart? Thyagaraja?”, “You will never get good at this music thing, it’s damn hard and you don’t have it within you!”, “You suck at music”, “You are the worst music student I ever saw, you have no clue of tempo, pitch and yet you think you are somebody, how dare you?”
These are some of the milder questions that “Resistance” asks you, every time you sit down to practice. Every time you sit down to perform in front of your family or friends. Every time you think of doing that big stage performance some day!
The best reaction to this mental monster that Steven Pressfield calls “Resistance” is getting up everyday knowing that Resistance is here to destroy my creativity and ability to grow but I will go ahead and practice anyway. I will go ahead and sing in front of my friends anyway. I will go ahead and dream big anyway. The only thing that the Resistance in our minds is scared of is our ability to ignore it and do the work that is necessary.
The more we put in, the more progress we make, the weaker this Resistance becomes. It will never ever completely go away but it will be overcome through our massive actions that turn the flywheel an inch at a time until the momentum in the flywheel gets stronger and stronger and then it cannot be stopped. It’s called the escape velocity, the critical momentum.
Most of us give-in way too early, some of us put in the effort and keep turing the flywheel but then give up just before it reaches the escape velocity and a rare few of us reach the escape velocity and accomplish our dreams with do it until attitude….as Les Brown says “It’s not over until I win”.
Remember, it’s not over until you sing. It’s not over until you play the music that you want to hear. Until then……keep on the Until course.
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