Outside the Comfort Zone

My piano teacher told me to mark the parts of the music that were hardest with a highlighter, and, when I'm practicing, practice those parts first, skipping past the parts that are easy.

This of course makes perfect sense. But it's not what I want to do. I want to play the parts that are comfortable, that sound good, that are easy. I play them great, and when I get to the hard part, I fumble through it and then go back to the easy part. My overall impression is "I played that pretty well, except for a little bit here and there." But unless I pay attention, I won't actually work on that "little bit here and there."

I attended a music workshop, and one participant asked the leader "How can you possibly do such-and-such?" The workshop leader said, "You are having trouble because your fourth finger is weak. You have to practice playing slowly and evenly to build up strength and get good habits." "It's always like that," the student said, "I can't help it."

We are all somewhat complacent working in the areas we know and are comfortable with, whether we are programmers not wanting to write in a new programming language, designers who resist designing for a new technology, or yogis who don't like certain posts. We have to force ourselves outside our comfort zones, not just once, but continually, to improve.

My Sensei has told me that in order to get to the top of the mountain I have to stop circling around and around. He is telling me the same thing. Staying in my comfort zone is just circling around the mountain.