What a wonderful read.
I tip my hat to all who have contributed and shared their thoughts.
A little more that came to mind reading the update ā¦
@Mari63 what a wonderful quote and image. Does remind me of āThe Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and The Horseā, both from a philosophical point of view as well as the drawing.
In this conversation I do think again about Carol Dweck and Fixed vs Growth Mindset. Iāve spoken about this in my Learning Log as have other at various points along with the conversation about inate talent.
Am I driven to be the best I could be. No. I am sure I could be better at this point in my guitar playing, music making adventure. For a start, less time in the Community and more time practicing, less time playing guitar and more time in deliberate practice. But this fulfills a particular set of needs in my life and being the best I could possibly be is not important.
On a personal note, perhaps I am just that person who lacks that level of drive and ambition. So today I am a fine example of unfulfilled potential in many respects and in many areas of live have not reached the levels I might have done with more drive and ambition.
But I do try and do the best I can given my current level of proficiency. And when I reflect on 2022, I am feel I am realistic and objective when I say I have improved my ability to perform at my current proficiency level and did broaden that with some focus on lead technique and improv.
I think performance quality sits on some kind of curve, maybe normal distribution (Iām no statistician), so changing the shape of that curve to move the mean and median performance levels to a high level is also improvement, and I think I have.
Rather than destination and goals I think direction and having a north star is more effective. I think it works to have that north star, that sense of ultimate goal that is near of not impossible to attain, determine your process to move towards it, and then track you performance of the process. If you stick to your process and continue to move towards the north star than in my mind you are improving, becoming better. I think this will lead to joy and satisfaction. If not, well time for deeper retrospection.
And in all this there is a degree of relativity, informed by factors like age, opportunity, etc. Absolute measures serve some purpose at times but in the context of music, not for me.
Again, must say I am loving reading this. It is much like the conversations I have with my LBro, not our Community LBro. He is an artist in Brazil and we connect via WhatsApp video call every Sunday for a conversation that runs 1.5-2 hours in duration. Much philosophy and frequently all about learning, the pursuit of mastery.
And in an unexpected turn, a sudden impulse I asked him to share one of the chess books he is currently using in his pursuit of greater chess mastery. And now I find myself happily engaged in some chess time. If anybody wants a game, send me a message. Note that I am a better guitar player than chess player, which given my level of guitar-playing proficiency is saying something about my chess rating (if I had one). But the point it is it still satisfying to play, to try and play a little better, and the fact that I think it is 100% safe to say I shall never give my LBro a game (until he reaches that decline in mental capacity that may come with age) does not take anything away.
OK, thatās enough further rambling from me ā¦
