A few weeks into the school year can be a miserable place to be.
You’ve got some notes down, but you’re not an ensemble yet. You’ve got some inkling of where you’re headed, but you’re still a ways away.
Here are the things to remember:
On the way to good, you have to go through a lot of failure.
On the way to good, you will feel frustrated when your performance doesn’t match your inner ear.
On the way to good, you won’t be good yet.
The comfort is that this has been true for every choir that ever got good. It’s been true for every pianist who has played Carnegie Hall, every Supreme Court Justice, every Major League pitcher.
Before they were good, they were on the way to good.
Knowing that failure is a byway on the path to success should be sweet comfort. And with that knowledge, you can let the frustration of failure lead not to quitting, but to practice – the practice that gets you ever closer to success.