In Laurel Snyder’s Orphan Island, ostensibly a middle grades novel but filled with allegory that would go right over the head of the average ten-year-old, nine children live together peacefully on an island. Every year, a mysterious boat arrives with a young child and takes away the eldest child. The new eldest child must teach the new youngest child the ways of the island, rules that have been handed down from child to child for as long as anyone can remember.

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Dave was looking for guitar lessons.

A successful professional with his own company and three school-age children, he joked in our first phone conversation about having a midlife crisis and said that he wanted to do something to stimulate his mind. He had no musical experience whatsoever, besides a lot of listening and attending shows.

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A friend of mine was struggling with a new skill.

She confessed that she was “not really cut out for it.”

Regardless of her actual ability, this statement limited her results. It was a convenient place to hide.

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What happens when you clear the decks to make room for your work — that most challenging work that you have been putting off but you know you need to do?

For many of us, nothing.

One of the weirder discoveries in observing my work habits, as well as those of my students, employees, and the people I coach, is that time has so little to do with whether something gets done.

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Having spent over a decade teaching music lessons, I can say for certain:

Music lessons aren’t where you learn to play an instrument.

Sure, they help. But the real work is done without your teacher, by yourself, playing and evaluating.

If you are unable or unwilling to spend this time “in the woodshed,” you will not achieve your goal of playing an instrument, no matter how much time and money you spend on the lessons themselves.

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