I see many parallels in sports and exercise with learning an instrument. Lots of people can probably see them, but no matter, I’m writing about it right now from my perspective. It’s very easy to rationalize and talk one’s self out of doing something that is not immediately gratifying. On the flip side, it’s very difficult to talk one’s self out of doing something immediately gratifying, such as eating a big ice cream cone, or hitting the snooze button an extra five times.
When it comes to exercising, and in my case, I’ll discuss running, because I’m a pretty diligent runner, it’s very easy to convince myself to go out for a run later in the day than would make sense, or bargain and negotiate with myself about skipping it altogether. After all, there is always tomorrow to run. When it comes to practicing an instrument, the same scenario can apply. It’s easy to put it off, skip it altogether, and justify not practicing one day by saying “oh, I’ll make up for the missed time by practicing more tomorrow.” The fact of the matter is, regardless of whether there is always going to be a tomorrow, today is now, and today is what we should be concerning ourselves with. Tomorrow is when we reap the rewards of not giving into the temptation of skipping today. But there will be no tomorrow if we skip today.
When I get to this type of thinking, I remember that what is important is putting in consistent time on a regular basis into the things that aren’t immediately gratifying, but yield the greatest rewards. Because today’s chocolate cake will be quickly forgotten, and that extra 10 minutes of sleep will be water under the bridge, but today’s run and today’s time spent at the piano will be remembered and built upon today and every day after. With that thought in mind, I’m able to tie my running shoes or set the timer on the piano….and build on tomorrow’s satisfaction…..today.
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