I know we are not at that time of the year, the time when we take on big projects to fulfill big wishes. I am talking about New year’s eve, of course. That’s when the gyms around town fill up their calendars, when the sales of sugar plummets, when you see determined faces in your environment. It’s beautiful.
It’s beautiful until when? February maybe. That’s too big of a maybe. Let’s say last week of January and I’m being a bit generous.
Why am I talking about this as summer is rapidly approaching? Because I do not make resolutions according to the calendar. I do them whenever the time is right. I’ll give you a for instance.
When I started the piano, about 23 years ago, I had nothing. No piano, no piano music: nothing. Well, not exactly. After digging throughout the whole house, I ended up with one of these little Casio keyboard and a wrinkled piano book for very beginner. Now let’s make fun of the equipment, the keyboard had 49 keys and the book had some serious songs like “Skip to my Lou” or “Mary had a little lamb”. High level stuff.
It was a bright day in May when I unearthed these old things and I took this resolution: “If I am able to practice piano one hour per day for one month, I’ll get myself an acoustic piano”. One hour doesn’t seem like a lot but I was already dealing with a full schedule of students and drum practice. Nonetheless, I proceeded to do just what I had said: one hour a day on those yellow and grey keys (They had faded over time). Within a couple weeks, I wasn’t making piano puree anymore, I could play a few notes of music.
I spent a month clamping on my resolution. I really wanted to learn the instrument. I was also discovering that I loved it. There was room for it in my life. As I was going through my routine I also found out that if I stopped one day, I would feel uncomfortable, like something was missing and I was sad in the evening.
I had put a big prize at the end of the month and many would comment that it was a mistake, that I was getting something too big too soon. An acoustic piano, especially a new one is very expensive. To those I would answer that I knew myself. I was already a veteran in practicing having clocked my 10 000 hours on the drums. So, I knew that buying a good instrument wouldn’t be a waste of money.
Why am I writing about resolution on this very day? What is my motivation? Am I about to take on swimming or running? No, but I am adjusting a lot of things in my life like eating more fruits and vegetable, less sugar and cholesterol, be more active and spend less time sitting down. I am serious too, I went walking my 10 000 steps every day for the last 5 days. If I’m able to do that for a month, I don’t know what I would buy, though, I already got a good pair of shoes.
