On September 1st, 1990, I taught my very first course to 15 people in a small classroom at the Camden College of English in Chalk Farm, London. Nearly twenty years and tens of thousands of students later, I realize that while much of what I had to say at the time was positive and useful, if I could go back and do it again today, there are only two things I would build my message around:
Sunday was Father’s Day here in America, and around 9am, I was lying in bed, pretending not to have been up for hours and wondering if my children were finally reaching an age where breakfast would not be delivered and the handwritten cards I’ve treasured since the day they first started coming would be replaced by a drugstore greeting card and a half-wrapped tie with the price tag still on.
To begin today’s tip, I would like you to think about something that you would really love to be, do, have, or change in your life but it seems impossible that you ever will.
This is not a “fantasy”, in the sense that it defies the laws of time, space, and matter, but rather something you really do want in your life that really does seem beyond unlikely for you to have it.
Every Sunday, a brave piano teacher named Vidal ventures into our home to offer five consecutive piano lessons to our family. He is endlessly patient, wonderfully flexible, and although none of us practice as much as he asks us to, we are noticing to our delight and surprise that occasional snatches of recognizable music emerge from our otherwise eclectic key pounding.
Think of something you have thus far failed to achieve or create…
Now answer this question:
Is it because you couldn’t, you didn’t really want to, or both?