Passion isn’t Enough

Beautiful guitars sit on display, calling out to be played

An old organ ponders the days of its youth

I started playing guitar when I was in college, as most people do. I had some previous experience in music; I started out playing the piano and played the trombone from 5th grade through Senior year of high school. I loved the trombone, but the biggest reason I didn’t quit is all my friends were in band class. Going to marching band competitions and participating in parade marching gave me some of my favorite memories in high school. I liked playing trombone well enough, it was a unique instrument that (when played well) can create some of the most beautiful tones of any brass instrument. I never excelled at it though because I didn’t practice at home. Despite my love for the trombone, I never put in the time needed to truly be great at the instrument. It’s easy then to see why my mother was hesitant to shell out 350$ to buy me a guitar that I so desperately wanted. However, my mother dearly wants to support me so I eventually convinced her to give me the money. I was still a broke college student at this point after all. I bought a lovely red, lacquer-finished, acoustic Fender guitar. It was stunning, and a wonderful beginner guitar. David Gilmore, lead guitarist of Pink Floyd, plays on a Fender; as my guitar idol I naturally wanted to follow suit. I practiced every single day. Even if it was only for 5 minutes, I made sure that I got my daily play time in. That was five years ago, and I’ve gotten pretty good at the guitar since then. It would seem that I finally found an instrument I’m passionate about, driving me to increase my skill. While this is true in part, it isn’t the whole picture. Whenever you start something new, naturally, you suck at it. And you know you suck at it. Where I think many people go wrong (myself included) is they want to rely on their passion to drive them through this, thinking if they can just find the right thing that they love enough they’ll finally be great at something. Passion is good, but it isn’t enough. The only reason I have improved at the guitar over the years is that I developed the discipline to keep at it. Had I relied solely on my passion and desire to be good at guitar, I would have repeated my experience with the trombone. I learned to let my discipline drive my passion. Passion ebbs and flows, it’s too unreliable to be the driving force for growth. True growth happens most when you’re willing to give effort that that you don’t want to put in. Whether you’re learning an instrument, starting a new job, exercising, learning math, or whatever else you can think of, if you show up on the days you don’t want to you will grow faster than you ever thought possible.