So, I’m going to write an anti-self-help book.
Real self-help books promise you that with THE MAGIC OF THINKING BIG you can GET THINGS DONE and you’ll go from GOOD TO GREAT (as long as nobody MOVES your CHEESE…).
But — why no books with smaller goals that self-help you into realistic things that you actually need?
If I were writing a self-help book, I’d go for something like —
- Manage to Get to the Post Office Before It Closes
- The Magic of Flossing
- I Will Teach You to Add Oil to Your Lawnmower
Because, really, don’t you worry that having huge, unrealistic expectations is the OPPOSITE of “dreaming big” — it’s really just “setting yourself up to fail”?
“Unrealistic” is different than “big.”
You can have a big dream of touring the world with your ukulele band.
But that’s a very unrealistic dream if you
a): don’t have a band and
b): can’t play the ukulele.
So maybe the first step is not booking the stadium.
I see this all the time with students in my real-world ukulele classes.
They get all excited, practice for a while, then give up.
Why?
Most times it’s because they’re not playing like Jake Shimabukuro quick enough…
When they first dreamt of playing uke, they didn’t have in mind the frustration of what it takes to get there —
The little plateaux, getting the fingers to move smoothly, getting two hands moving in coordination.
And that’s THE MAGIC OF THINKING SMALL.
(Ah-ha! I think that will be the name of my ukulele self-help book!)
Just sit down with the uke for five minutes. (A list is helpful…)
Do five minutes for five days, and suddenly your big dream is no longer unrealistic.
Hmm. Maybe I don’t need to write a ukulele self-help book. I just wrote a self-help sentence.
(And there it is — the Magic of Thinking Small!)
And, the most important part, enjoy the success at each step.
Come on, your ukulele is small. Why not make your process small?