“It’s not where you start but where you finish that counts”― Zig Ziglar

Developing any skill takes time and effort, whether it’s learning to walk as an infant, ride a bicycle as a child or drive a car as a teenager. If you fail your first driver’s license road test, it doesn’t mean that you’re never going to be able to drive a car. Your commitment to developing the skill you desire in the face of frustration and temporary setbacks is more important than the speed of your progress at any given point in the process. The challenges you face along your journey are certainly meaningful to you, however most other people only care about what you can do right now. After you have a successfully developed a skill that is valuable to others, nobody will care how bad you may have been at performing that skill in the past.

As a lifelong musician, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had friends pick up my violin or guitar then jokingly pretend to play it badly and then say, “see I don’t have any talent”. The truth is that nobody is good at anything the first time they try to do it---this is true even for so-called prodigies! Don’t let your desire for instant gratification or immediate results prevent you from putting in the time and effort required to achieve a goal or learn a skill. The general formula for success is fairly simple--you need to do 3 things: 1) Decide where you want to go or what you want to do 2) Determine what it takes to get there 3) Do whatever is necessary to get there. Onward & upward!