Faulty Reasoning

I know that my arguments about the judgments or lack thereof that I have written or will write about in various careers are based on faulty reasoning, or that I have stated them poorly. Whenever you create something, there is always risk if it is to have any value. For example, what do you think the next iPhone will look like? Do you think there will be people who don’t like it, or things about it? Yet, at some point, Apple will have to take a risk and change the design of it.

Closer to home, I have had critiques and one particularly bizarre comment about my web site. I designed that from scratch, roughly basing it on a design of another site that I liked. Yet I put it out there and I am not too attached to the responses I got. The important thing is that I did it.

That’s really the point. I’m not sure why I am so attached to what I do in music. Creating a detachment from that would go a long way towards helping me progress. (Thanks Connie!)

P.S. The bizarre comment about my web site was simply this. “fyi. your beard looks photoshopped on the ‘contact’ page on your website” Here’s the link to the page if you are interested. I see why he thinks that after looking at it, but I would never have thought of that on my own. I mean, beard???

Mon, 2011 10 03 at 12:00 PM |Permalink for this entry

Judgement

Sometimes, I think about giving this all up.

Yeah, that’s an overreaction.

It really sucks, because of how much I’ve put into it already. But what’s interesting is what I think about doing instead, which is usually programming for iOS (iPhone). I realized what’s appealing about that is the lack of judgement involved in a career like that vs. music. Sure, there is some, but not like we think of with music.

I also came to this realization from another direction. One of the things I’ve been learning about in my recent studies is music theory. I know quite a bit about it now (though I’m sure I’ve only scratched the surface). I find it very interesting and love digging into it. I also often tend to practice a lot of technical stuff even when I have more practical things I should be working on. The reason for both of these is that there is very little judgement in these activities.

What this all means for me is that I need to fight the fear of judgement. There are multiple aspects to this. One is to be detached from those judgements. We have to realize that our worth is not dependent on how well we do things. (I know some may disagree, but this is how I feel or try to feel about it.)

Dr. Wayne Dyer put it this way.

I am a human being, not a human doing. Don’t equate your self-worth with how well you do things in life. You aren’t what you do. If you are what you do, then when you don’t…you aren’t. - Dr. Wayne Dyer

There is also the more practical side of this. How often do people really tell you that you suck? Even when one person does, they’re usually drunk, and no one else agrees.

Lastly, we all need to be kind to ourselves, as Kenny Werner reminds us in his book. Beating yourself up because you messed something up doesn’t really help you. I mean, if you’re going to get anything out of it, do something about it and move on. At least, focus that energy into creating something positive instead of spending it dwelling on what you did wrong.

Mon, 2011 10 03 at 9:00 AM |Permalink for this entry