When I was younger all I wanted to do was learn enough guitar licks to imitate my favorite rock guitar heros. But that kind of evolved into an overal interest in a lot of different styles of music. I've been hooked on playing music since this time and always held onto it over the years, even though I would eventually make my living doing something else outside of music altogether.

I was thinking about this the other day when I sat in on my daughter's Karate class and heard her instructor talking to the class about the life-long persuit of mastery in the Martial Arts. Much of what he said could be applied to the same way I feel about playing music. In that way music has taught me alot of lessons about life, in the same way the people learn lessons about life from their persuit of mastering the skills of Taekwondo for example.

As I get older I realize more and more that there were these lessongs that I picked up from trying to master the guitar all these years.

Here's my list:
- Getting good at anything is more of a journey than a destination
- Always strive to learn new things. It keeps you motivated
- Don't compare yourself to other people. Just try to be the best that you can with what you have
- Be flexible and improvise when you have to, go with the flo (this could be applied to my work life as well as music)
- Do what you love, even if you aren't making a living at it. (music is one of the best therapists going. I realize that more and more now)
- Music is a door opener and it brings people together (I've met so many people in the corporate world that are closet musicians like me. The music bond seems to melt away all of the normal barriers when I meet folks like this. Suddenly I'm talking about my favorite guitar amp with some executive who is in a band, and we're just two guys talking about music without any concern about job titles, company politics, etc.)

What lessons has music taught you?

-- Jim