I share the following with you which came in from a reader yesterday because the lesson relates to all of us.

When you read it, ask yourself, “How much time do I spend on polishing the shiny objects in my life while ignoring the less bright aspects that need some major cleaning attention?

Here goes…

A son, who is a recent graduate of the Fine Arts in Piano Performance shared with me a term used through out the music department. It is “Shiny-Object-Polisher”. He explained it was the difference between
amateurs and professionals. He ran into this principle every time he worked on a new piece of music. It refers to the reality that in reparing a new work of music that some passages will come along quite quickly and readily while other parts will be more of a struggle.

The tendency is to polish the parts that are easy to make bright and clean in performance and leaving little time for the more difficult passages. The music professors can quickly hear where the lessons learned in performance are already at hand and the student lingers too long in practice on those parts without moving on and spending a greater amount of their study and energy in the areas not nearly as “shiny”.

He went on to explain that he learned the value of going directly to the most difficult passages of a practice piece and spending nearly all of his time there. Thus, not allowing the easier portions of the musical piece to distract from learning the needed lessons of the day.

I now look at my own day to see where I dedicate the major portion of my time and energy. Is it with the projects that are Shiny-Object-Polishing? Or do I go directly to the less attractive tasks and put my energy into them?

While the tendency is to shy away from the more arduous undertakings, yet the greater personal development comes from the less than shiny endeavors right in front of me. And now I find gratitude for those tasks.

So, what less than shiny tasks do you have before you today that need some vigorous metaphysical scrubbing attention?