One Step Forward

Hi there guitar lovers and lovers of life.  We’re here to tell you that you can achieve anything if you are consistent and take one step forward with everything that you do.  All you have to do is take small steps and be consistent.  Nothing earned that is worthwhile is ever done overnight.

Consider the following:  

For those of us readers who have a 4 year college degree, we realize that it wasn’t just a decision to get a college degree that made it happen.  It was the 4 years.  It was the 1,461 days.  It was the 35,064 hours.  It was the slow incremental steps:  the decision to go to college; the choosing of what college to go to; the applying to the college; obtaining financial aid; getting the books; getting yourself to the school in whatever way you could; attending the classes; the daily studying; the part time jobs; the summer job; repeating the financial aid process the next year; the books; study, etcetera repeated for the next three years.  Small steps had to be taken each and every day to achieve this.  Sometimes you didn’t think about the individual steps and where you were at the moment, you just DID IT and knew that you would eventually achieve your goal of getting a college degree.  And there you have it – you earned a college degree.  It sounds simple to say, but that’s how everything is done.

This is the same thing that we have here at RCGS with learning guitar.  We must realize that every time we pick up the guitar, with every note we play, with every chord that we play, with every song that we learn, with every class that we attend, with every monthly private lesson, with every performance, we get a little better; a little closer to our goal of getting where we want to be on guitar.  We must be patient and steady with guitar, just like anything else worthwhile.

Let’s explore this concept with someone who really has taken this approach, one step at a time, and achieved incredible successStephen King, who has written more than 50 novels and according to Forbes magazine has achieved an estimated net worth of between 200 and 400 million dollars, has commented on this subject before. 
From Stephen King:
“When asked, "How do you write?" I invariably answer, "One word at a time," and the answer is invariably dismissed. But that is all it is. It sounds too simple to be true, but consider the Great Wall of China, if you will: one stone at a time, man. That's all. One stone at a time. But I've read you can see [the Wall of China] from space without a telescope.”

Just like Stephen King, the Great Wall of China, getting a college degree, learning guitar, becoming a yoga instructor, hiking a mountain, writing a novel, getting a black belt in karate, knitting a sweater, building a house, building a business – all of these achievements and countless others are achieved the same way – one step; one task at a time.  And when you realize that all it is, is steady, patient, consistent action towards a goal, you can achieve anything that your mind can conceive.

Furthermore, you may find that the first few steps may be hard, but you will find that with each step that you take, it will get a little easier, like a snowball rolling downhill.  With every snowflake that you add, the snowball will get heavier and gain momentum until it is an unstoppable force taking you towards your goal.

So, use your imagination, conceive where you would like to be, and take incremental steps every day.  Get started!  You will be amazed at where you will go and what you will accomplish!

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