Self-development is a blessing.
Over the past half-year or so, I’ve dedicated more of my time to learning about the things I love – helping others, sharing music, being creative. As soon as I made this dedication, I was reaping the rewards of investing my time. I opened up my ears and finally started to listen and WOW, the voices that reached me have been changing my life, and my values, and I’m really, really enjoying the change.
This spring, my buddy, Raymell Smith (check out his band, Arteless) and I went to a bass clinic hosted by Victor Wooten. Victor is the youngest of the five incredibly talented and famous Wooten brothers, and plays with his brother, Futureman, in the group, Bela Fleck & the Flecktones. He’s easily the best bassist I’ve ever seen perform live. After decades as a professional musician, he authored a book called “The Music Lesson.” TML isn’t just a series of notes. It’s a philosophy book on the role shared by music and all things in life. It’s a life lesson book.
Reading TML reinforced my desire to make music a bigger part of my life, and to put some of his thoughts into my own approach to music. I almost said playing, but well, that’s one of the lessons. Raymell and I had a chance to meet Victor afterwards, and we’ve both studied the notes we took dozens of times since the clinic. We had a chance to catch Bela Fleck & the Flecktones at the Shenandoah Valley Music Festival over the summer, and were once again blown away by Vic’s approach to music.
I met another master of his field in August, while attending the USANA Health Sciences International Convention. Shawn Achor is the author of a study in positive psychology. He authored “The Happiness Advantage“, which studies the effectiveness in positive thinking as an approach to business and life. Shawn and his team have a great approach. They don’t seek to study averages, but rather the positive outliers; those who break the perceived ceiling during an experiment or study. If one person can do it, why can’t everyone?
One of Shawn’s lessons was incredibly effective (and equally hysterical). Shawn introduced a thing called the “20 second principle.” In short, here’s the lesson. If you have to spend more than 20 seconds to get to something, you’re much less likely to actually do it. His example was working out in the morning. He wanted to get up and work out, but getting dressed, stretching, finding his shoes and getting to the gym took way more than 20 seconds, so he never did it. How did he overcome the obstacle? He went to bed in his workout clothes and put his sneakers by the side of the bed. When he woke the next morning, it took a few seconds to get his gear on. The result? Shawn now works out in the morning…and sleeps in his sweat suit.
Here’s where the two paths converge. I’ve been making changes to my office to overcome the 20 second obstacle. I cleared my book shelf of old CD’s and put the books I have in my queue. I’ve already finished reading John Maxwell’s “17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork” and Jason Ryan Dorsey’s fantastic “Y-Size Your Business“, and I listened to Morgan Spurlock’s “Don’t Eat This Book!” That’s a lot of self development. Tonight, I made one more change. I took down a framed piece of artwork and replaced it with…my guitar. Now, when I have a musical idea, or I want to learn new chords, or figure out a song, I just reach behind me (, tune the thing, ) and I can do it.
I just did this tonight and the results were great. My 7 year old son and I played guitar and piano together. I introduced him to the first chapter of The Music Lesson, and we laughed and had a great time. That’s music. That’s life. That’s the change I’m aiming for.
Is there a lesson you’ve learned this year that has changed your life? Please share.
One love,
nK