Here’s the problem with any activity, skill, hobby, or craft that takes a considerable amount of time to master…
You might even find this counter-intuitive but it’s: “memory.”
Here’s why:
The first time you do something is always a journey of discovery. You’ve never done the activity before so your mind is taking in all the minute details and making lots of connections. Your receptivity to learning is at its height.
There are no labels or memories or comparable experiences to prejudge the new experience and thus learning is at its highest.
However, after the hundredth time of doing something, the experience is usually different.
For most people, the repetition brings about unconscious competence. This is when you really don’t have to think about what you’re doing. Like Nike, you “just do it.”
In fact, we engage in many activities in an unconscious way, unaware of details that once fascinated us. We, instead, rely on our memories, labels, shortcuts, and experiences from the first time we did it. Unfortunately, this is when learning and discovery drops to zero because memories of past experiences take over.
But if you live “TODAY” based on your memory of yesterday, you miss the gift of the present moment totally!
“The past is history, the future is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present!”
-Bill Keane
When you sit down to the piano, do you sit down with a fresh mind, open to learn new things? Or have you gotten stuck in what you “already” know?
It’s great to have mastered things “unconsciously” but it could also be holding you back from mastering new things! In fact, the world changes so much that if you’re living based on a memory of the 70s, you keep from seeing things as they truly are.
The next time you’re at the piano, try an exercise where you “forget” what you’ve learned about a particular chord or progression or key, and just approach it with a newness and freshness like never before.
WATCH WHAT HAPPENS!
You’ll discover a whole new world. You’ll grow a whole lot faster and improve a lot quicker.
It’s called “BEING IN THE NOW.”
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