I am starting to write this "Sermon" with no clear cut agenda. I haven't done that (or any writing, really) in a while, so I figure now's as good a time as any.
I just finished watching the women's gymnastics Olympic finals for the individual balance beam event. I was really happy that Shawn Johnson won the gold.
I know.
A lot of you are probably thinking "What the hell? You watch women's gymnastics?" Well, yeah. I do. At least the last week or so I do. It's the Olympics, man. I don't ever get excited about the Olympics until they're actually on. Then it's like I can't help but get caught up in them. And really, this year has been pretty special for U.S. athletes so far. Between Michael Phelps and the female gymnasts, it's hard not to feel a little excitement.
I was in the recording studio the other day, laying down some guitar tracks for a project a producer friend of mine was working on, and I had a really good take. When the take was over, my friend said "...and he sticks the landing!!" My friend wasn't really referencing the Olympics, but I couldn't help but bring up the fact that at that point, Michael Phelps had won 6 gold medals, all of which with world record times. Even my friend, who isn't really into sports at all, explained how he can totally appreciate the beauty of that.
And it is beautiful. I think that watching someone who is so dedicated to what they do have such a triumphant showing is truly beautiful. It is Quality exemplified. Think about those first six races for Phelps. He has spent every moment of his life lately preparing to perform at his peak in Beijing. Everything he does, even down to everything he eats, is centered around being the best swimmer he can possibly be. And what is his reward? Well, in the first six races, his best was not only good enough to beat everyone else in the pool, but also good enough to beat everyone else that has swam those races in official competition before. Ever. That is inspiring.
I think a lot of people could really miss the inspiration in that, though. It would be really easy to look at that and say "Wow, that's amazing. He's an extraordinary human being. One in a million." And, they would be right, but I think that most people forget that the biggest aspects of talent are simply interest and dedication. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm certain that Phelps has a lot of natural, physiological advantages that allow him to perform at his level, but my main point is that anyone who has enough interest, dedication, and belief in themselves can achieve greatness in just about anything they put their mind to.
I try to tell my guitar students this. I wish it sank in a little more often than it does, but most of my students are teenagers, and their brains aren't quite ready to learn the deeper lessons of life just yet. I try to tell them that if they really want to advance musically, they need to practice as much as possible. I tell them that that is what got me where I am with the guitar. I tell them that the secret to my success was that for the first three or four years that I played guitar, it was all I thought about all the time. Every time I could get my hands on a guitar, I would play. Even in the beginning when I wasn't very good. I sat there and I worked things out until I could play the things I wanted to play.
We as people just have such a hard time getting past the negative thoughts. If there is a supreme evil spirit in the Universe, it inhabits every negative thought in existence. Now, I know there is a lot of philosophical talk going around about the power of positive thought, and my opinion is still mixed about all of that. But while the empiricist in me is not ready to say that positive thoughts manifest reality, the spiritualist in me knows that they definitely don't hurt.
I remember one day when I was working at my last temp job, a coworker said something to me that really struck me in a profound way with regard to positive thought. I was working for the government office that handles court hearings for unemployment insurance, and sometimes I couldn't help but read the appeal letters that would come in. You know, sometimes, you just happen to catch a single sentence, and you instinctively read more. Anyway, I was commenting to the above-mentioned coworker about how ridiculous some of these appeal letters seemed to me. I said something like "Do these people actually think they have a chance in hell at getting this decision overturned?" She just kind of looked up from her work casually and said to me "Yeah, some of them are pretty crazy, but my Grandpa always used to say 'If you don't try, you fail every time.'" I don't think I'd ever heard that concept stated that way before. It really opened my eyes.
It's like the hundreds of anecdotes about the lottery that basically say you can't win if you don't play. I think this really hits at the heart of the issue of positive and negative thoughts. A person who is thinking positively will not talk themselves out of trying. They will not be swayed by the odds of success. Sure, they may not succeed, but their chances of success increase exponentially the moment they decide to try.
Deciding to try, of course, is the first step. The next step is much longer and more difficult. It is the step of turning the "try" into the "do." In Empire Strikes Back, Yoda tells Luke that "...there is no try." Some people might think that Yoda's philosophy is contradictory to what I have just written, but in reality, it is complimentary. You see, Yoda was just skipping to the next step. Once you have decided to try, you're really only half-way to achievement. The next step is turning your decision to "try" into your belief that you will "do."
When I was a teenager, in the deepest parts of my soul, I knew that I would be a good guitarist someday. That is what made me pick up my guitar every day for four or five hours. Now, I'm not saying that if you believe hard enough you can make the impossible possible, but I am saying that even that which is possible is impossible until you believe in its possibility. I started playing guitar when I was fifteen, but I got my first guitar when I was about seven or eight years old. I plunked around on it, but I never really believed I could learn to play it until I was around fifteen. I would make up all kinds of excuses, until one day I finally just decided to go for it and take some lessons.
I believe that each of us possesses myriad potential talents, and all we have to do is nurture any one of them with positive thought and devotion in order for it to develop. Another good example from my personal life here would be mathematics.
I failed just about every math class I took in high school. I never passed a full year of algebra and ended up taking basic business math classes to fill my graduation requirements. My overriding thoughts about it were "I suck at math." When I got to college, I knew I had to take some algebra classes in order to get a degree. Now, I knew that part of my problem with math was the fact that in traditional math classes, you have to do a ridiculous amount of homework problems to pass the classes. I am a very quick learner, and so doing a hundred problems for one chapter was like Chinese water torture for me. (The truth of the matter is, I should have been put in advanced math classes early on, so I wouldn't get bored with the pace of the regular classes, but I just translated my low grades into a poor opinion of my mathematical aptitude instead.) I decided to take my first algebra class as a self-study course. This worked out very well for me. I ended up getting an A- or a B+ in the class (I don't remember, exactly). Eventually, I dropped out of college, so I still never completed a full-on algebra class, but that is another story.
The rest of this story is that in order to be accepted into the electrician apprentice program, you have to have passed at least a full year of algebra in either high school or college. Since I want to become an electrician apprentice, I needed to take another math class. I think I've mentioned before that I started an online course around May of this year. Well, because my opinion of my math skills changed a few years back from "I suck at math" to "I could probably pass some math classes if I put my mind to it," I was able to get a final grade on my online math class of 96.4% This class included basic arithmetic, algebra, graphing, basic geometry, basic trigonometry, binary, octal, and hexadecimal number systems, Boolean algebra, and logic and truth table systems. I feel very confident now in saying "I don't suck at math."
Ok, it's about 1:30am, so it's time to wrap it up. To sum today's sermon up, I just want to leave you with the following:
- It's ok to watch women's gymnastics.
- Watching another human being achieve personal greatness is a beautiful thing, and celebrating the achievement with that person, even from half a world away, helps you feel connected to all humanity.
- Dedication and belief in one's self can lead to greatness.
- The embodiment of evil is found in every negative thought.
- "If you don't try, you fail every time."
- Trying is the first step. Turning your decision to "try" into your belief that you can "do" is the second step.
- Even that which is possible is impossible until you believe in its possibility.
- Sometimes when we think we aren't good at something, the truth is that everyone else in the class isn't ready to move on to where we are yet.
- I don't suck at math.
I hope you've enjoyed our time together today. Until next time,
I am the Reverend Humpy and I have approved this message.
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