Perfection is boring

When I go see live music, one of my favourite things is when the band makes a mistake. I’m not sadistic in any way; my enjoyment comes in watching them recover. A big part of it too is the reminder that we’re all human and we all make mistakes, no matter what level you’re at. To me the most important thing is how resilient you are, and you become more resilient the more you practice, the more you perform your craft. When I first started playing with a band in public I was deathly afraid of making mistakes. And then it happened, and then I moved on, and it got easier each time it happened. A lot of the times the audience wouldn’t even know a mistake had been made because they don’t know how it’s “supposed” to be.

I started to realize that it was these spontaneous moments, when we had to react to something unexpected, that brought a lot of excitement and satisfaction to the performances. It validates all of the time and effort that goes into pursuing the craft. When you recover well you can say, “that’s why we practice!” There are so many things that are out of our control that it’s pretty much inevitable things won’t always go as planned.

How resilient are you in the face of adversity? Can you let go of the notion of perfection?

[Feature image: Ricky Aponte]