Zoe, life isn't always going to come to you easily. Sometimes it is going to be frustrating and difficult.
Right now you are not just practicing piano. You are practicing how you are going to deal with things that are frustrating. You are practicing for real life. One day you are going to have a child and they are going to be frustrating and huffing and crying and getting yourself even more worked up is not going to help the situation.
Someday you will have a job and it might get frustrating and the frustration might not go away quickly. So you are going to have to learn how to deal with it. You are training right now for that day.
So, think about who you want to be. Think, who is Zoe and how does she handle things when they don't go well or when they are difficult. Think about the person you want to be. Feel it inside you.
Now, when you are ready, start the piece again. And if you can't get the piano piece right, you can feel still feel good because you are also practicing becoming the person you want to be.
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I especially like the last sentence you wrote....it's something we can all keep in mind when things get tough.
ReplyDeleteI really like your wording of the last sentence, because it is directed back to ownership.
ReplyDeleteConversations like these goes on in our home as well.
The other day we covered an analogous topic on "quality", and how it will be expected by either a boss or clients when she grows up.
This is perfect.
ReplyDeleteI'm mom to a 10yo boy who struggles with sometimes debilitating self-criticism & perfectionism. I'm only now discovering Dabrowski's overexcitabilities & seeing how that may play into his classroom tears that don't seem to be getting much better as he matures.
But, I like this approach (and had been skirting around it re: his learning a new violin piece a couple weeks ago). I told him, at that time, that I liked this more challenging piece because it helped him learn how to deal with mistakes as part of the learning process - not as failures. I told him how I worried about that in his life.
Now, you've inspired me to take that a little further - to give him a visualization of himself in the future & give him ownership in creating that person. I will, most definitely, be referring back to this post often. Thank you!