100 day challenge
My son has completed a 100 day challenge several times with his Suzuki violin class. Like many activies, repetition and a disciplined commitment are the cornerstone of aquiring new skills. Violin is no different in this regard. As an example, I’ve included the preface from Suzuki Violin Book 3. I truly believe that Dr. Suzuki would have been fast friends with Dr. Carol Dweck (Growth Mindset researcher).
At the conclusion of today’s group lesson one of the other students offered my son a new, blank 100 day challenge sheet. He tentatively takes it from her because he knows how hard it is to complete. For some reason, she then offers both my wife and me a blank sheet. Without skipping a beat my wife takes one to track her daily guitar practice.
Wanting to be a good team player and support my family, I accept the blank sheet and proudly proclaim “I will do 100 days of creative writing”. <– I have no idea where this came from.
As we walked out the door my wife says “Are you going to write short stories, haikus, and essays?” I responded that I plan to work on blog posts everyday. In the spirit of transparency, I’m not a blogger. In fact, I can count on one hand how many blog posts I’ve written.
So…this is day 1 of a new habit. What am I expecting over the next 100 days? Firstly, I’m hoping to write a bit each day. I’m taking an “Agile” approach where I work towards a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) blog post and add a bit of refinement. If I can ship 10-15 blog posts over the next 100 days I’ll feel good. I’m going to filling in the bubbles with one of 3 colors:
- Pink - MVP
- Yellow - Refinement
- Green - Done
Secondly, I want to have some fun with the process and maybe I find a new creative outlet.
I do have a few ideas for upcoming posts including:
- Podcast series I love
- Leadership, coaching, continous improvement
- Possibly some Chili Dog reviews
I’d love any feedback you may have about topics you’d like me to take on.
Now back to the violin business that instigated this whole crazy idea…
As mentioned, I see so many parallels between the work many of us are doing to lead transformations and the writings of Dr. Shinichi Suzuki. I hope you are similarly inspired.
Shinichi Suzuki, My Study of Violin Practice
TL;DR
- Ability is something that develops only after one has worked diligently
- Study Daily without exception
- Not to rush ahead, but to dedicate oneself to attaining excellent tone
- Practice pieces already learned so as to continually improve one’s performance
