The Great Ones Dance with Fear

The Great Ones Dance with Fear

Are you dancing with fear?  I don’t know of any GREATS who skipped this step in their climb to the top. 

We face our fears … we conquer our fears … we do the hard work in order to become whatever it is we wish to become.

And the fears hold a party in our head:

What if I fail?

What if they don’t like me?

What if nobody shows up?

What if it doesn’t work?

What if it’s too late?

What if I die before the finish line?

What if the alligators get me?

What if somebody better comes along?

But it’s already been done before!

You know the drill.  There are a thousand reasons why you should not attempt a thing.  What you need to find is a handful of great reasons why you are the one and now is the time for you to launch, present, show up and do the thing you do best.

Fears will always be around.

Give us a good reason to hang around and see your stuff!

Thoughts for Improving

Whatever Needs Improving!

P Michael Biggs

Steps and Skips Blogsite

Hope ~Encouragement~ Inspiration

What Lies Within

(This is a post dealing with skill development, whether you are a musician, sports participant, business owner or budding artist.  The logo implies music, yet these ideas are transferable to all endeavors.  Thanks for reading.)

A story:

One of the greatest violinists of all time was Nicolo Paganini.  Born in 1782, he had a long and illustrious career before his death in 1840.

One day as Paganini was about to perform before a packed opera house, he suddenly realized that he had walked out on the stage with a strange violin in his hands - not his own treasured instrument made by the master violin maker Guarneri.

Panic-stricken, but realizing that he had no other choice, he began to play with all the skill he possessed. Everyone agreed afterward that he gave the performance of his life. When he was finished, the audience gave him a standing ovation.

In his dressing room after the concert, when he was praised for his superlative performance, Paganini replied, "Today, I learned the most important lesson of my entire career. Before today I thought the music was in the violin. Today I learned that the music is in me."

Maybe our talent, or genius, or immense skill really does reside inside of us and not in the tools, trinkets, and magic elixirs we once believed in.

I am a writer.  I would love to live in an ocean side home with a high perch for a writing room.  The truth is that I can write anywhere.  I’ve written in a dozen Starbucks, a smelly tire store, university libraries, a noisy mall, my car, and a hundred other places.

The skill is within you.  Let it out wherever you go.  

Michael Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Soul

Tell Them How

Students need specific and focused praise to help them grow and understand how life works.  If we use the simple phrase such as “you’re doing great” or “lookin' good” that doesn’t really say much.  It is generic and non-specific. 

A great twist on this idea would be this:  “I love the way you phrased that last set of measures.  You really played with great expression.”

Specific praise leads to an increase in specified behaviors.

Let them know in exact words HOW they are pulling off ‘great’. 

Positive esteem followed up with examples reinforces the behavior and helps us want to do more of that kind of good work.

P Michael Biggs

Up-Words Web Site

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

Character and Talent

Possessing natural ability is important.  It can jump-start a career, a professional bent or a sports icon.  However, without character, that talent soon fades. 

John Wooden, legendary coach of the UCLA basketball program and the only coach in history able to boast of 88 consecutive wins knows a bit about character and talent. 

How did John Wooden become John Wooden?  He had a profound sense of integrity – or character, as is our focus today.

“I believe ability can get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.  It is easy to begin thinking you can just turn it on automatically, without proper preparation.  It takes real character to keep working as hard or even harder once you’re there.  When you read about an athlete or team that wins over and over, remember - More than ability, they have character.”

~John Wooden

Character gets a person out of bed and into the practice room.

Character helps one focus on the immediate job at hand – a difficult passage, a messy measure.

Character drives one to perfect practice principles. 

And that, parents of the people I have grown to love, is one more reason to guide your child into habits and skill-set development that will launch their ability to realize dreams and goals regardless of the path they pursue.

Carolyn Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Student