A Gift to Your Future Self – Putting it Into Orbit

One of the first chapters in my new book, All In Good Time- a Book about Playing Music for the Aspiring Ukulele Musician, talks about what I call “putting it in orbit” – a little mental device I thought of to help you deal with information you don’t yet understand. Rather than imagining a new chord, song, or concept as being “over your head” – I suggest that you imagine it in orbit up and around your head – at arms reach for the time in the future when it all clicks and you “get it.” This works, and I have had many students tell me of the moment when they “got it” and all that previously hard to understand information suddenly became clear.

But just a couple of days ago, I thought of another way to think of implementing this concept: think of it as “saving it for your future self ” – a gift, if you will, for sometime in the coming weeks, months, or even years.

Like some people who buy extra gifts and store them in a closet somewhere to be used sometime in the future when they need a gift for someone’s birthday or celebration of some sort. They don’t really know who it will go to, or when it will be needed, but they know it’s a nice gift, and they know someone at some point will benefit from it.

So the next time you are in a class or workshop, or even just listening to someone more advanced in music than you, and you don’t really understand what they are talking about – don’t let that information go over your head and fly away. Put it into orbit – or that little hall closet – and know that it’s there waiting for you to find the right time to use it. Only this time you won’t be giving to someone else – you’ll be giving it to your future self.