I failed last night.
I stayed up later than I should have. That means I started my day later than I should have. I don’t have a good excuse. I wasn’t doing anything to further my career or edify humanity. I know better. I’ve failed this same way hundreds and hundreds of times before.
Here’s the thing. My failure last night put a specific YouTube video in front of my eyes this morning that has completely changed the way I look at practicing the guitar. As is usually the case with these types of things it actually was a series of videos that led from one to the next like bread crumbs until I found myself with my mind blown.
My failure put me in the right place at the right time. My failure caused me to come across this information with exactly the right brain that I needed in order to take it fully in. The ‘me’ of last week or last month or last year wouldn’t have been ready for this information. The ‘me’ of right now is ready.
We have to be able to accept the bad in order to receive the good. The light and the dark are inexorably linked forever. You can’t have one without the other. Two sides of the same coin. Every joyous moment in your life has happened because you were in the right place at the right time with the right brain, body and soul ready to receive it. It was the previous good and bad experiences that led you there. One small shift in the other direction and the ‘you’ you’re experiencing right now is completely different.
I’m writing all of this now in order to remind myself to not beat myself up when i-Fail. I want to remind myself to accept that sometimes those dumb things that I do are necessary parts of a larger whole. You take your lumps and you move on. You try to learn. You try to do the best that you can.
* For those of you who might be guitar players, this video led me to this guy. Checking out the videos on his channel led me to this course by Pat Martino.