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How to be good at anything

It’s something that I always believed: Before you enjoy something and are good at it, it means you worked really hard for it.

For instance, even playing the piano means you have to work hard at learning how to read music, co-ordinate your foot and your hands, and play fluidly.

I started playing the piano when I was 5 (couldn’t even reach the pedals!), and it wasn’t until I was perhaps 15 that I felt like I was decent at it and could play some nice, adult-version* songs like Beethoven’s Fur Elise.

(*They have baby piano versions that sound like the famous piece, but are much easier for little hands to play.)

A photograph I took of my piano

10 years, and at least 10,000 hours later, I could read and play piano music easily, then when I picked up the violin and the viola later, it was a lot easier for me to read the music since I already had a background in piano.

This can apply to work too — before you enjoy and love your job, it means you have to put in a lot of hours learning how to do your job before it starts to become easier and dare I say, fun?

Then if you really don’t like your job at the end of the day, that’s a whole ‘nother story altogether.

It can be easier to wish for an easy life where everything comes to you on a silver platter, but working hard for it helps you appreciate it all the more.

2 Comments

  • PP Gal

    Having difficulty learning is part of the process. But it’s another story when you are dragging yourself to work whether it’s an easy job or not.

    I’d rather have a difficult job that I love than a boring, easy/hard job or task that I’ll never learn to like or not my forte.

    This post reminds me to pick up my guitar although my fingers would definitely hurt 😞 because I haven’t played for a long time. For others, what are you learning or would want to right now?

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