If You Could See Me Now

Some of us might be saying this to our 2018 selves.

In 2019, all of us are going to be a year older than we were in January 2018. That might be good or bad depending on how you look at it, but hopefully you're also a year better!

There's a website about playing jazz that I read, called Learn Jazz Standards. There's a few things that it always says you should do, like listening to music, making plans, and of course, learning famous and important songs, which are called jazz standards! (That's where the title of the site came from.) Ringing in the new year reminded me of one of those topics: making plans.

Yeah, I can already hear what you're saying. "You said that you make posts related to songs you've played. What does this jazz standard website have to do with 'if you could see me now?'"

Just wait, and I'll explain it. Meanwhile, you can listen to the song:

Let's say you have someone who is still learning about music.

You might know if you read this post that this player X has gotten really excited about music, and been spending lots of time on it. If they're not playing or listening to music, something's wrong. This passionate musician even eats and sleeps while listening to their favorite songs.

But then, something goes wrong. Player X begins to feel like they are not improving. 4-hour practice sessions and constant music don't seem to be helping, even though it seems like they should.

Player X needs to learn about the tradition of New Year's resolutions.

These often don't work - just because you say that you should drop 100 pounds, pick up 100 books, or paint 100 feet of walls this year doesn't mean it's going to happen. 

However, "New Day's Resolutions" would be a lot better. (That isn't any official term - I just made it up to be something different.)

Instead of just saying a blanket statement for the whole year and then ignoring it, you really take some time to think about your ultimate goals for each part of your life - things like taking solos that make people ask you to keep playing, or not having to worry about your walls (which are currently covered in scratches and grease) - write those down (it's been proven to increase success probability), and start breaking them down into simpler steps that you can accomplish one day at a time.

Before long, if you regularly spend time on the goals you wrote down, you'll start seeing improvements that you weren't getting before.

It's happened to me, too. For example, I have been thinking about the songs that I will post later this month and in February. I knew that I needed to start recording songs, but I kept making excuses like, "It's Christmas break....I can wait a few more days....I'll start that one later...." But one day I took a few minutes to think about it, and didn't really find a concrete reason why not to start now. So, I'm going to start now.

What I'm basically saying is:

If you never make a plan....

....then many things will get a lot harder.

That's one of the things you'll hopefully remember in 2019. Maybe at the end of the year you will be saying to your 2018 self, "If you could see me now, you would...."