Subscribe below to receive a new post via email every Thursday.
Back in the olden days, I prided myself on being able to customize each music lesson to the needs and requirements of the student.
I benefited from this versatility. It meant that every student was a good fit. When a family wanted rock guitar for one kid and classical piano for the other, I could deliver, building an equally good rapport with the thirteen-year-old boy and the seven-year-old girl.
Read MoreDespite hard work and good intentions, years can go by without meaningful progress toward our most deeply-held goals.
It turns out that this is the problem I’m most interested in helping people solve these days. And I am very interested in exploring why so many of us do everything but the work we feel most called to do.
Read MoreIn the film The Miracle Worker, there’s an intense scene in which Helen Keller (played by Anna “Patty” Duke) and Anne Sullivan (played by Anne Bancroft) have a battle over breakfast.
The deaf-blind Helen, having received no education or training, is resistant to the efforts of her young teacher, Miss Sullivan, to instruct and guide her. Put bluntly, she’s spoiled. Miss Sullivan is intent on getting Helen to sit at the table, eat off of a plate, and use a utensil instead of her hands.
Read MoreSometimes, the emotional weight of what we’re trying to do is too heavy.
We might be burdened by the shame of past failures.
We might have waited so long to do the thing that now it feels like too big a deal.
We might be scared of what will happen after we do the thing.
Read MoreI cleaned the kitchen yesterday. Good for me!
Unfortunately, I only cleaned it after breakfast. I neglected to clean it after dinner, so I have a bunch of dishes, pots, and pans waiting for me this morning.
As much as I’d like to think of cleaning the kitchen as a project that I can just do once and get out of the way, it’s more of a practice — a project that must be done every day, or even more than once a day.
Read More
