A deep chasm separates an amateur from mastery. The bridge that spans across this chasm is practice. As an aspirant starts crossing the bridge, she meets three obstacles on the way.
The first obstacle is the people who don’t want you to succeed – the parent that questions your pursuit of an unusual hobby or the roommate who yells at your playing the same Pink Floyd song over and over.
If you don’t get past this obstacle, there is the commercial world promoting variety as an end in itself. If you practiced your violin instead of scrolling your feed to find out ‘what’s happening in the world’, how would the silicon valley founders secure their next round of funding?
The final obstacle is the most potent yet – your own mind’s excuses. A part of us is afraid of realizing our own potential. Boredom is the mask that the mind uses to disguise this fear. Of the three obstacles, the mind is the most crafty and dangerous. If you still insist on crossing the bridge, it threatens to throw you off the edge.
If your practice is good enough to overcome these obstacles, mastery awaits you on the other side.
Observations 