Whatever it is, it is right now.
Past is gone. Future will never come. Live in the moment or you’ll keep reciting same stories of the past that you lived in first two decades of your life.
How many times in your life have you heard this phrase or said it yourself, "I want to start to do ...." or "I want to learn to do ..."? Five times? Ten times? Countless? And what is the common reason for not being able to do any of that? I'm pretty sure it is "I don't have time".
When I asked a friend what does she do when she reach home after work, she replied, "An hour or two of binging Netflix, half an hour or so of social media, and then maybe some YouTube before going for a sleep."
Well, I'm sure you all can see that there is time available. It is just not getting prioritise. I truly believe based on my experiences that the barrier between starting anything that you want to do is the distance that you perceive. We all think about all the struggle and grind that we have to go through to become something, but getting started to do something is not that tough as you might think
Becoming bad is underrated.
We think about all the possible amazing scenarios that becoming a good pianist, good cook, good artist or good software might lead to. But journey to becoming good starts with becoming bad.
Stop caring about becoming good at playing guitar. Just go to a store get a basic guitar, steal five minutes out of your social media or netflix time and learn a small technique and practice it just for five minutes. You'll be bad. You'll stay bad for days and weeks. But those weeks of being bad and five minutes of effort every day will make you good and even great.
Becoming bad is the process that you should strive for. Become bad at a new technique every day.
You see, while building a house, the hardest and ugliest part is the structure. All that wood work, brick laying, wirings and stuff, is what leads to final structure on which if spend some time can become good or great with just a nice coat of paint and some furniture. It didn't have to care about looking good until last few weeks.
Don't care about becoming a good guitarist just become a guitarist. To become that you just need the equipment. Once you have that, you just have to get better or practice being bad at a new technique every day. Believe it or not, psychologically it is harder to become a bad guitarist than just improving your technique of playing guitar.
Harder than body building is to go to gym at regular consistent schedule for a long period of time, preferably for a life time. So, stop worrying about getting great body. Strive for becoming bad at a new exercise but with proper form, you don't wanna get injured.
Showing up everyday is way harder. Reducing the friction to achieve that is really important. Don't hold your instrument or gym membership purchase just because you feel you don't have time to get "good" at it. Make the purchase because you have all the time needed to become bad at it.
That's it for this blog post and if you feel that you've something to add to this or you have a different perspective then share it and discuss it on r/StoicHuman or go to the Reddit discussion post for this blog post linked down below.
Stay healthy, Stay safe!
Journaling is your superpower. It's Free!
Follow our weekly podcast on Spotify called "Stoic Human Podcast". Also available on other platforms like Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Overcast, and more. Just search "Stoic Human Podcast".
That's it for this blog post and if you feel that you've something to add to this or you have a different perspective then share it and discuss it on r/StoicHuman or go to the Reddit discussion post for this blog post linked down below.
Stay healthy, Stay safe!
Journaling is your superpower. It's Free!
Follow our weekly podcast on Spotify called "Stoic Human Podcast". Also available on other platforms like Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Overcast, and more. Just search "Stoic Human Podcast".