The Way You Approach Anything Is The Way You Approach Everything

I was watching a YouTube video that was sent to me by one of my students, Brian, who is a Sales Supervisor at Mercedes.

It's funny because somehow my personal email ended up on Brian's group email that he sends to his team everyday. This was the 4th day in a row that I had gotten an email from him and I was actually going to ask him to take me off the list.

But, I figured that I must have been send this email for a reason so I decided to click on the link and watch the video.

Part of the video was a commencement speech by Dr. Rick Rigsby. I had never heard of Dr. Rigsby before but his message was so powerful I had to watch it several times.

He gave many great words of wisdom to live by but there is one that really hit me hard, "The way you do anything, is the way that you do everything." 

Whenever I hear these kind of quotes that really speak to me, I get goosebumps and it prompts me to take a second and write it down in my iPhone notes "journal".

I instantly began to internalize the message, think about it's truth, and see how it relates to me. What I realized is that this is a really truthful quote. 

For me, I'm a perfectionist, even to a fault. When I decide to do something, like create Uke Like The Pros video courses, I do everything I can to make them as perfect as I can. Are they perfect? Probably not, but it's what forces me to put the extra time in to make sure they are as perfect as I could make them. 

It made me think, do I approach everything I do on a daily basis with this perfectionist attitude? The answer is yes. No matter what I do, from cleaning the kitchen, to surfing, to practicing, to being a parent, I try to do it as perfectly as I can. 

I always find that I take the extra step to complete a job. Many times these are things that most people wouldn't even notice, but I know that if I didn't do the job right then it would bother me.

It then lead me think about my music theory students that I teach in Los Angeles. It's really interesting because I teach 2 back to back classes each with about 40 students. 

You start to see patterns in students class after class, week after week, and month after month. Just by the patterns they demonstrate in my class I can imagine how they operate in all areas of their lives.

For example, the students that are always late, or have excuses of why their homework wasn't done, or why they couldn't make it to class, or why they didn't have time to study for the test. When you see it over and over with students you come to the conclusion that they must run the rest of their lives in the same fashion.

If they can't get serious about the commitment they made to come to class on time, do their homework, and study then I can imagine they probably suffer from keeping commitments outside of school.

I don't believe, like the quote implies, that you can turn on or off your motivation or drive. You either put the time in, do things right, and get good results, even with the most mundane tasks or you don't.

What are your thoughts on this quote? Does it resonate with you?

Can you relate it to your commitment as a ukulele player? Do you approach the ukulele with the same passion, devotion, and drive that you approach other areas in your life that you are successful in?

I bet that if your a hard working, driven, and successful person in your family, business, and personal lives, then it rolls over into your ukulele playing as well.

Thanks,

Terry