Small Wins

So often we grow at a snail’s pace.  We experience life one slice at a time in the beginning.

I watched a video clip of a young baby elephant learning to take his first steps.  It looked like an uncoordinated mass of grey.  He stepped on his trunk more than once and finally, with success, he took those first important steps.

In another video I watched a golden retriever Mom teach her young pup how to walk down a set of five steps.  Her first attempts were so tenuous, and then down one step, but oh so quickly she went back up.  Finally, with an amazing dose of encouragement from the mother, the young pup finally took the bold steps and was successful.

The principle is this – what we learn in small steps leads to bigger and bolder steps. 

We gain confidence, we gain balance and we gain skill in those early small wins and it is on those that we build our lives.

This is true in music as well as in all of life.  That is why we encourage going slowly at the beginning of any new skill.  We break the skill into chunks that can be managed, and then we connect the dots for all of the skills until mastery happens. 

In the book The Power of Habits, we find this seed.

“Once a small win has been accomplished,

forces are set in motion

that favors another small win.”

Carolyn Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Student