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]
There is nothing wrong in perfection and if more people strived for it, we’d have many more positive incidents in life. Because people would have pride in what they do, ad achieve higher standards fr the sake of doing a good job.
It’s not the notion itself that we need to let go. I personally think the focus goes on two points which are linked together: why does someone strives for perfection, and are they doing it a healthy way.
‘The journey is as important as the result’.
Be ambitious, do your best and a bit more, and only then the result you achieve should/could satisfy you.
This conviction is what supports me. I am ambitious and have very high standards of results. I work hard in what I do, and even what I don’t necessarily want to do. Then, and only then, I might be satisfied about the results – to which I give the weight they deserve.
Truly Richard, I understand what you are saying. And I absolutely agree that the journey is about becoming the best version of ourselves that we can.
And yet, I see a place for mistakes.
Here is my own view.
Mistakes allow humor. We learn to laugh at ourselves and with others. Are there many funny or amusing stories told that did not involve a mistake or mishap of some kind?
Mistakes remind us firmly that we are always students never masters, and therefore we always remain teachable.
Mistakes give us the opportunity to ad lib and create some unexpected sparkle where there just may have been bland perfection. Mistakes have often been the impetus for great inventions.
They not only propel us to work a little harder, give us a humorous way of not taking ourselves too seriously, perhaps introduce a little zest in an experience, but also free us to be not only who we are, but what we are-wonderfully, messily human!