Savvy Women

I’d like to make a confession. I’ve been incredibly distracted recently. So many things are going on right now. I’m getting ready to go on my annual trip back to the place where I was born and grew up and where all my kinfolk live. There are other things happening in my life right now, so many that I can’t even begin to mention all of them here, so I was wondering if I’d be able to concentrate enough to do a blog this week. I had no ideas or direction, and then I was lucky enough to discover this video.

Please do yourselves a favor and watch the whole twenty-four minutes of this TED clip. What you’ll see (if you persevere) is some magical piano playing—including an improvisational piece that will floor you or lift you to the ceiling (or both)—by a young pianist named Jennifer Lin. You’ll also be treated to Lin’s thoughts on the art of composing, including her comparing writing music to drawing cartoons.

Oddly enough, the first thing that came to mind when I watched this was that time in my life, many years ago now, when I was in graduate school at Texas A & M University. There was this place on campus called the Memorial Student Center, a locale that included bookstores, eating places, quiet study spots, and a large lounge complete with its own grand piano. Anyone who wished could sit down at the instrument and play for as long as her fingers held out. Others could relax on fluffy sofas and listen.

There were many talented pianists at A & M, and I would often be treated to a free concert. I’d stretch out and become totally mesmerized by the music, often falling into a kind of trance as the performer made her way along. It was during my student days that I discovered how listening could be done with the whole body, not just the ears. If one could manage to listen this way, the sounds that one heard would take on a tactile quality and be “felt” throughout the body.

Each time I listen to Lin play, I feel “touched” by the notes of her music as surely as her fingers touch those black and white keys.

With New Year’s Day right around the corner, it’s time (once again) to make those yearly resolutions. This time, though, you’re going to stick to them, right? Right!

There are lots of good videos out there on how to set self-improvement goals and then achieve them. I chose this one because the visuals were kind of cute and funny. Plus, it included a couple of interesting factoids, like a person “greatly increases” her chance of success in any given endeavor if she can persevere for three weeks because that’s how long it takes to break bad habits and establish new, good ones.

I thought the advice in the video was pretty sound, especially the part about setting goals that are achievable. If I had to guess, I’d say that a great many people fail to keep their resolutions because they were overly ambitious in the first place. If you are absolutely determined to set goals that are really BIG, let me suggest that you simply change the way you view those resolutions and your approach to realizing them. Break the whole thing down into smaller, more manageable units of action. Thus, when you set out to achieve something that’s really ambitious, don’t begin by asking yourself how to finish the project. Instead, ask yourself what the first step is and how to go about getting started doing it. Just remember this Troy Headrick maxim: Starting is the first step in finishing.

I’d also like to suggest that you look for ways of being inspired as you set out to achieve your goals. Watching videos and reading books that tell success stories can be very motivational. The more you see that great things are possible, the more possible great things become.

That is the question. Before I provide you with my answer to that query, I’d like to announce a major discovery.

A couple of days ago, I found this really cool blog called Rocketboom. The site describes itself as “a daily international news program based in New York City” that provides “a wide range of information and commentary from top news stories to contemporary internet culture.” Having had a good look at the site, I’d say that’s a fairly accurate description. They did leave out two important points, though. One, they failed to mention that the site features videos. And two, they forgot the part about how much fun the blog is.

This week’s Rocketboom video offering is Ellie Rountree’s “6 Gadgets to Help You Multi-task in Comfort.” Having watched it a couple of times now, I’ve come to the conclusion that I really like the “multi-tasking chair” and the Sony Sountina speaker system. (Sorry for that spoiler.)

Now, to get back to the question I posed in my opening. I asked it because I wanted you to think about multi-tasking. I know that the sort of lives we live demand that we do learn how to do it, but frankly, I’m philosophically against multi-tasking, as a practice.

Those who argue that we should turn multi-tasking into an art form are really saying that we should squeeze every ounce of productivity out of ourselves and never let a single moment go to waste. Actually, I think that sounds unhealthy and would, on the contrary, advocate that everyone get a little better at loafing (or kicking back or decompressing or however you want to say it) without feeling guilty about not always being at peak efficiency. After all, humans are not machines, and we shouldn’t try to imitate them.

Plus, too many of us are already spread too thin. What we don’t need to do is behave in ways that cause us to “fragment” or “dilute” even more than we already have. Rather than doing five things at once (and probably not doing any of those masterfully), we need to learn to focus and concentrate.

Gosh, I’m probably sounding like some kind of Buddhist or something.