Paying the Price
Now hear this!
As I have promised, my blog is a no hype, tell-it-like-it-is (read in
your best How-ward Co-sell! influctuation), no holds barred
documentation of the steps of success for one EverydayGuy.
This past week, I stumbled upon the secret to being EXCELLENT!
It really hit me like a ton of bricks. The realization came together
while doing some reading and thinking about past experiences.
Here's the story. I used to go quite often to see all the local
bands in my area. It was to the point where I had seen them
all. Of course, some were better than others. And there
were a couple that were outstanding.
The obviously one characteristic that separated them from
the crowd was their level of "musicianship." They could flat out
play!
I asked one guy how in the beegeebees he came to that level
of play. I mean, he had a style and sound with the guitar
that was evident. I was hoping that there was a secret
he could impart to me.
I was surprised (and somewhat disappointed) in his answer.
The answer?
39,000 thousand hours!
What? Well, he was a guy in his 40s and had been playing
that guitar since he was a teenager, almost everyday, since
he had started.
He had not only played it almost everyday but also had taken
a small fortune's worth of lessons as well.
I think you must be getting the picture.
The secret is...PRACTICE and EDUCATION!
In reality, this in not disappointing but very encouraging!
I always thought that people were born with that
genetic disposition to do that which they do well.
While there certainly is some truth to this, and isn't
great to know that all of us were genetically
pre-disposed with the ability to...
practice and learn by doing!
So in the pursuit of our goals and dreams, the question
we all need to ask is, "How long do we practice
everyday!?"
You know, when you think about it, the old adage,
Rome wasn't built in a day rings clear. Becoming good
at something takes time! Becoming GREAT takes
a lot of time...sometimes maybe a lifetime.
Which makes it even more important the you enjoy
the journey and not so much the destination in
your endeavors!
FALLING SHORT
Recently, my friend Steve, the internet personality
as he humorously calls himself, returned an email to me
and apologized for having not been good about keeping
in touch.
That hit home with me because I am notoriously bad
about keeping in touch! One of the worst things I am guilty of
and feel terrible about is how I have lost touch with many
of my former students..some of whom had been making
the effort of dropping me a line from time to time and checking
in with me.
When you get down to it, there really isn't any excuse for
this. Life, problems, schedules, business...it really is sad
I've let things get in the way of losing touch with
former students. Or any others for that matter!
One step to take going forward from here
I had read that you could get some interesting results
from google searches. For example, if you entered the term
(I love this one) "French victories" google would return with
the question...
Did you mean French defeats?
I am not making that up!
So for kicks, I entered my name, really not expecting
anything to show up. Why would an average everydayguy
rate? I mean, it wouldn't surprise me if something showed
up on the 455th page of a search...but c'mon, this
search wouldn't produce that kind of return!
What was the result?
Well, one was a post in a forum I had made years
ago about my African Grey parrot. And the other one
was an article the ColoradoGuy did about my 55 Chevy pickup.
After I got up from the floor from the painful realization
of just how pathetic
the results of that search were, I realized I may have found
that attaining a 1st page ranking on the search engines
might not be all that difficult!
In fact, a couple of weeks after I started this blog, I
searched for the term "EverydayGuy." My blog came up
NUMERO UNO!
Not so cool was also the fact that on the 1st page
were a few less than favorable sites...ones I would NOT
want to be associated with!! I will leave that to your imagination.
Suffice it to say, I think it is the word "guy" that
triggered the results!
I now have definitive proof that my 1st choice,
EverydayBOY would have been disastrous!
But! I digress.
Here is my point. It came to me that if I added
my last name at the end of these posts, in the
posted by information, maybe the blog would appear
if someone searched for me by name.
And guess what? Within 10 days of doing this, my
blog now appears in the 3rd position when google
searching for Phil Ladden.
The relevance? I hope that maybe in this way, should
a former student attempt to see whatever happened
to old Mr. Ladden, they find Small Steps of an EverydayGuy
and drop me a line...
I can promise you this, they will get a response.
As I have promised, my blog is a no hype, tell-it-like-it-is (read in
your best How-ward Co-sell! influctuation), no holds barred
documentation of the steps of success for one EverydayGuy.
This past week, I stumbled upon the secret to being EXCELLENT!
It really hit me like a ton of bricks. The realization came together
while doing some reading and thinking about past experiences.
Here's the story. I used to go quite often to see all the local
bands in my area. It was to the point where I had seen them
all. Of course, some were better than others. And there
were a couple that were outstanding.
The obviously one characteristic that separated them from
the crowd was their level of "musicianship." They could flat out
play!
I asked one guy how in the beegeebees he came to that level
of play. I mean, he had a style and sound with the guitar
that was evident. I was hoping that there was a secret
he could impart to me.
I was surprised (and somewhat disappointed) in his answer.
The answer?
39,000 thousand hours!
What? Well, he was a guy in his 40s and had been playing
that guitar since he was a teenager, almost everyday, since
he had started.
He had not only played it almost everyday but also had taken
a small fortune's worth of lessons as well.
I think you must be getting the picture.
The secret is...PRACTICE and EDUCATION!
In reality, this in not disappointing but very encouraging!
I always thought that people were born with that
genetic disposition to do that which they do well.
While there certainly is some truth to this, and isn't
great to know that all of us were genetically
pre-disposed with the ability to...
practice and learn by doing!
So in the pursuit of our goals and dreams, the question
we all need to ask is, "How long do we practice
everyday!?"
You know, when you think about it, the old adage,
Rome wasn't built in a day rings clear. Becoming good
at something takes time! Becoming GREAT takes
a lot of time...sometimes maybe a lifetime.
Which makes it even more important the you enjoy
the journey and not so much the destination in
your endeavors!
FALLING SHORT
Recently, my friend Steve, the internet personality
as he humorously calls himself, returned an email to me
and apologized for having not been good about keeping
in touch.
That hit home with me because I am notoriously bad
about keeping in touch! One of the worst things I am guilty of
and feel terrible about is how I have lost touch with many
of my former students..some of whom had been making
the effort of dropping me a line from time to time and checking
in with me.
When you get down to it, there really isn't any excuse for
this. Life, problems, schedules, business...it really is sad
I've let things get in the way of losing touch with
former students. Or any others for that matter!
One step to take going forward from here
I had read that you could get some interesting results
from google searches. For example, if you entered the term
(I love this one) "French victories" google would return with
the question...
Did you mean French defeats?
I am not making that up!
So for kicks, I entered my name, really not expecting
anything to show up. Why would an average everydayguy
rate? I mean, it wouldn't surprise me if something showed
up on the 455th page of a search...but c'mon, this
search wouldn't produce that kind of return!
What was the result?
Well, one was a post in a forum I had made years
ago about my African Grey parrot. And the other one
was an article the ColoradoGuy did about my 55 Chevy pickup.
After I got up from the floor from the painful realization
of just how pathetic
the results of that search were, I realized I may have found
that attaining a 1st page ranking on the search engines
might not be all that difficult!
In fact, a couple of weeks after I started this blog, I
searched for the term "EverydayGuy." My blog came up
NUMERO UNO!
Not so cool was also the fact that on the 1st page
were a few less than favorable sites...ones I would NOT
want to be associated with!! I will leave that to your imagination.
Suffice it to say, I think it is the word "guy" that
triggered the results!
I now have definitive proof that my 1st choice,
EverydayBOY would have been disastrous!
But! I digress.
Here is my point. It came to me that if I added
my last name at the end of these posts, in the
posted by information, maybe the blog would appear
if someone searched for me by name.
And guess what? Within 10 days of doing this, my
blog now appears in the 3rd position when google
searching for Phil Ladden.
The relevance? I hope that maybe in this way, should
a former student attempt to see whatever happened
to old Mr. Ladden, they find Small Steps of an EverydayGuy
and drop me a line...
I can promise you this, they will get a response.
