How Do you Get to Carnegie Hall?
Practice, Practice, Practice……
One of the early temptations I had as a consultant was to always come up with something new to teach or share with my corporate clients. I was sure they would stop hiring me if I didn’t have some new methodology or model for them to learn. I read endlessly and was always trying to invent new ways of being and doing. It went on far too long and had at its base, a level of insecurity that kept me hopping. I would gaze enviously at some large training companies Big binders of information, graphs, charts and diagrams and wonder what was wrong with me that I couldn’t produce volumes of “never before heard of techniques”. Perhaps it was the era, or perhaps it was just me trying to take all the advice of Tony Robbins and Dream Big.
I know for a fact that it never occurred to me that going deeper was infinitely more valuable that going wider. That practicing the depth of an understanding was where the transformation took place …not the endless acquiring of information or instruments…but the taking the teachings to everyday Life and integrating them far beyond the starting point of understanding.
We can be hijacked into thinking that the “new” is where it’s at…the latest gadget or game on the phone…or the best recipe on Pinterest or latest product on Instagram. I am not against any of those and can be tempted to dabble as much as the next person. At the same time, though, my wisdom keeps reminding me that the Truth isn’t new…and it can be missed entirely by looking in the wrong direction.
The practice I am up to these days is integrating the Principles that are the foundation to both psychological and spiritual understanding…they share a common base which is to nourish and expand who we truly are, to every avenue of our life. Those principles show us how our thinking works and how awareness increases exponentially with practice and how the source of all intelligence is present in all ways, always. They are simple and easy to miss – so easy to go outside in (the devil made me do it) to shift to inside out…(the world is in me). Each glimpse of that brings greater peace, greater insight into how to point others to the magnificence they are; to know that all is well.
That old joke this blog is named for has deep wisdom in it…we could answer how to get to Carnegie Hall by directing someone to a flight to New York or, we could go deeper to the truth…practicing is what makes the difference in a violin student or Itzhak Perlman or wanting to be a rock and roll star, and the ever creative Bruce Springsteen,(who is still practicing at 73!) or a little boy with a basketball in his hands, and Stephan Curry…practice.
To practice the deep principles of life, notice how every thought creates a feeling and every feeling leads to an action and every action brings a result and every result brings new insight or same ole, same ole thinking. Which will be your experience?
Go for it – and use this as a reminder of what transforming practice can do…
