Yes, I am talking to you – why do you procrastinate at learning to play the piano? If you have been reading my blog for a bit, you clearly want to learn to play the piano or else why would you waste your time on a website called Piano For Retirees?
I get that procrastination is easy to do. Even though I am not known to procrastinate, I do it from time to time. We all procrastinate from time to time – it is part of human nature. Sometimes we procrastinate with things for years and maybe even decades, but it never starts out that way. The way procrastination can happen by putting off the first task in a series of tasks until this afternoon, this evening, tomorrow and we keep up this cycle until days, weeks, months and years pass.
Look, if I knew how to end the procrastination cycle for people, then I would be a very wealthy woman indeed! All I know is that procrastination over the tasks that will be of short or long term benefit will cause harm – not just the harm of missing out on something good, but can be a negative for a person’s mental health. As you know, I am not a health care professional, I am a piano teacher and this is just my opinion. The question you need to ask yourself is whether I am correct or not.
I do understand the reasons why people put off having a go at learning to play the piano. I have had so many people tell me what their obstacles are, over many years and I understand why they feel insurmountable, but in reality, they are not insurmountable at all.
Many people have told me that the lack of time is an issue for them. I get it. I am not retired yet and I still have teenagers, so I understand about the lack of time. Retirement is a different phase in life, where typically retirees have a lot more time on their hands. Learning to play the piano in retirement is an ideal time, because there is finally the time to actually attend to hobbies and interests.
So what is holding you back? Is it because you are concerned what others may think of your attempts? Not everyone is supportive and sometimes people just do not understand. Some people are jealous and some people want to discourage because they subconsciously think that if you succeed in your endeavors, then their excuses for following their dreams might not be valid. In other words, you might be rocking their status quo and they are uncomfortable about that. So if this is your obstacle, then get a keyboard or electric piano that you can plug headphones into and then that way no-one can hear you. What they don’t know won’t harm them or you.
If you reason for not pursuing your dream of learning to play the piano is because you are afraid that you won’t be good enough, then put that idea to the side and get started anyhow because that fear is never going to dissipate unless you take some action. To quote a book title, feel the fear and do it anyhow. Getting started and not being sure that you will be any good is certainly daunting, but it will never get less daunting, so you might as well start to make yourself happy. It is also important to remind you that only you can define what is ‘good enough’ and another person’s definition is completely irrelevant.
Carpe diem – sieze the day