This is a review of Guitar Zero: The New Musician and the Science of Learning.  It comes from my reading of a copy of the book prior to its release date.  My review on Amazon is the first one and listed under “Book Fanatic”.  Some parts of that review are also included here.

Guitar Zero is a sometimes inspiring story of Gary Marcus, a 40 year-old psychology professor, who followed his musical heart (not talent) fairly late in life.  After playing Guitar Hero he decided he wanted to learn to play the guitar, something he had wanted to do all his life.  During a sabbatical he decided to immerse himself and see if he could do it and what he could discover about adult learning.

I found the story quite interesting.  It is a story about human learning told through the perspective of music.  The specifics are music but I think the message is much broader.  Its about the science of adult learning and the plasticity of the human brain.  The author managed to interview and otherwise interact with some talented musicians and others in the field and you get some fascinating insights from them. 

I do have a quibble with a part of the description of the book on Amazon: “Guitar Zero stands the science of music on its head, debunking the popular theory of an innate musical instinct and many other commonly held fallacies.”  This is very misleading because while the author indeed does not believe that music itself is an “instinct”, he implies he believes in inborn characteristics that make us more or less talented musically.  In fact the author specifically mentions musical prodigies and repeatedly says he himself is lacking any musical talent.  As I write this I have just finished watching Dateline’s tribute to Whitney Houston.  I’m pretty sure she was born with something very few others are ever blessed with.  Anyway, part of what makes the book interesting is his struggle against his lack of talent and ultimately the degree of progress he makes despite his obstacle.

I think this book will be of interest to those who are musically inclined.  It will also be of interest to those who are interested the science of learning or just someone who wants to following a passion later in life.  I definitely enjoyed it.  Please be aware that this is most certainly not in any respect a how-to book. This book does not teach you how to play the guitar or any other musical instrument.

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Even though the spirit of Christmas has turned into a consumer obsession, it is still a good time of the year to think about the spirit of giving a little something of yourself to make the world a better place.  This article is about what you individually can do.  It’s about accomplishing something worthwhile by yourself.

I’m not telling you to try and make a difference in anything or not to try and make a difference.  That is a completely personal choice that each person makes for themselves.  Frankly I’m tired of the constant demand for giving of time or money for this or that cause.  It’s a turn off and in my mind counter-productive.  I find myself less likely to give anything to anybody as a result.  You can’t even go through a check out line now without the clerk asking you to donate to some effort.  What follows is my advice on the most effective use of your personal resources should you choose to do something.

Movements

I am strongly anti-crusade, anti-mass movement, anti-group action, etc. I wrote an article last year on this topic and I encourage you to read it here: The Problem With Causes, Crusades, or Organized Movements.  It rarely succeeds and even when it does the result is not necessarily what one had hoped for.  For instance the Egyptian freedom movement, which did succeed in ousting the corrupt Egyptian government, looks like it is going to end up resulting in a strongly Islamist government.  I’m pretty sure many of the young people and women of that movement aren’t going to be happy with the results. Some will be happy and some will have felt like they contributed to something worse.

More often though you end up with diluted effort, wasted resources, and failure.  The Occupy Wall Street movement comes quickly to mind as an example.  Instead of spending time camping out in a park, singing Kumbaya, and being a general nuisance, what if each and everyone of those people spent the same amount of time and effort (mental and physical) actually helping someone in real need (including themselves) on a one-on-one basis?  Think as well of all the public money (police, sanitation, etc.) that would not have been diverted and the useless media attention.   One of my favorite quotes on this summarizes it well:

“Most people think in terms of indirect alternatives – who must be changed, how people must be educated, what others should be doing. Consequently, they spend most of their lives in futile efforts to achieve what can’t be achieved – the remaking of others.” — Harry Browne

Contributions

Even giving your money to a big organization is an extreme dilution of those resources and much of it may go to administration anyway.  Agencies who collect donations often take 50% of the donation off the top for themselves.  It is not unusual for administrative costs to take much of the rest (see for example the U.S. government Welfare Administration).  If you have a $100 to help someone you may end up giving $75 to help enrich those who claim to help others and only $25 to actually help someone who needs it.  Why not take your $100 and find somebody you know needs help and do something specific to help them that is worth the whole $100?  You and they both will end up better off and the bloodsuckers won’t get any of it.  See the excellent expose Three Cups of Deceit: How Greg Mortenson, Humanitarian Hero, Lost His Way (it’s only 99 cents on Kindle) for an example of how some charities fleece the public (and school children) and enrich themselves.  Don’t get me wrong, there are actually some excellent organizations, but even with them your effort is diluted and you don’t really know where the money goes.

“When we decide to do what we can, where we are, instead of looking for others to do it, we feel more powerful and accomplish more.  What’s more, beyond our personal world most of the great problems of our day can be solved only by each of us deciding to take action in our sphere of power.”  — John Izzo

Plant a tree, ride a bicycle, help a neighbor, volunteer your time, buy some poor kid a Christmas present, take a kid who needs a role model to a ball game, visit a children’s cancer hospital, counsel, mentor, or do whatever you feel appropriate.  But stop campaigning for change and joining causes.  Stop wasting your time trying to convince others.  You will likely fail and waste their time and yours.   People are tired of others telling them what they should do with their resources.  You’re better off just being a shining example of whatever it is you are trying to accomplish.  People are more likely to follow your example than be convinced by you getting in their face.

The choice is real simple.  You can either spend your time campaigning, protesting, debating, organizing, strategizing, etc. (e.g. political activity) or you can actually spend your resources doing something that matters to real individual persons.  It’s as simple as that.

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I love the movie Apollo 13.  If you haven’t seen it you should watch it.  There is one aspect of the movie I want to focus on in this article.  Two days into this third mission to the moon, the oxygen tanks carried by the spacecraft exploded.  The ability to power the ship for the remainder of the mission and to support the survival of the crew disappeared with the oxygen . When the oxygen tanks exploded, the situation must have seemed hopeless.

Fortunately the mission had not yet reached the moon and the lunar landing module was still attached to the command module with with its full complement of independent supplies.   Had the explosion happened on the return trip, the crew would have not been able to survive.  As it turned out this life boat was available for use.  When they entered the lunar module, there were only about 15 minutes of power left in the main command module.

Over the next four days, the crew, the contractors who made the components of the spacecraft, and Mission Control in Houston, pulled off a human miracle.  But they didn’t achieve this miracle by focusing the enormity of the overall problem.

This crew was triumphantly returned to earth because the support team solved one problem at a time.  They brought intense focus and creativity to each problem until they solved it.  These were not magnificent technological achievements.  Their resources were limited by what they had on board the craft and their solutions were what is often called “jury rigging”.  That simply means temporary solutions with what you have available at the moment.

By breaking this big “impossible” problem down into a series of smaller problems, Mission Control turned it into a series of smaller issues that could be dealt with.  The lesson of this magnificent moment in history, is that if you keep thinking, if you keep focusing on something that you can wrap your mind around (both consciously and non-consciously), you can achieve what may seem impossible.  I cannot run 1,000 miles.  But I can run one mile 1,000 times.  If I could not run one mile, then maybe I could run 1/2 mile 2,000 times.  Anyone who can run by definition can run for at least one stride.

I believe that there is no gap between where you are and where you want to be, that cannot be subdivided into a number of relatively small and easy-to-bridge gaps.  No matter how big the overall gap, you can always imagine a series of steps that can bridge that gap when strung together.  However, do not focus on the big gap.  That is psychological suicide.  Focus on the end result of each small step.  It is OK, and in fact critical, to see the new you in the final dream, but don’t visualize the gap itself.  Visualize it as if it has already happened.  Your non-conscious mind will deliver to you the small solutions.

Take the very first small step towards your dream.  Make the step so easy you could just fall forward and achieve it.  Do it now.  It  will motivate you to take the next small step.  Soon, this series of small steps becomes a self-reinforcing habit pattern of progress and success.  You are then in an upward spiral.  If you can’t imagine a series of steps going from where you are to where you want to be, try going backwards.  Start with your dream and imagine a series of steps in reverse.  You can always do that.  It is a very powerful technique.

I first saw my daughter as a tiny, helpless, eight-pound baby girl.  During her physical growth to maturity, I never once saw her actually grow.  And yet right before my eyes, she transformed from that tiny baby into a wonderfully mature adult human being.  Imperceptibly small step by imperceptibly small step, invisible cell by invisible cell, her growth bridged a seemingly impossible gap from newborn to adult.

Why are parents not surprised at this everyday miracle?  Aside from the fact we witness it repeatedly, I believe it is because no parent tries to imagine their newborn baby snapping instantly into a fully grown adult.  They know it doesn’t happen that way.  They don’t imagine the gap.  They are too focused on getting to the next day.  They have no energy to wonder about next year, or eighteen years into the future.   We are not surprised because we know that miracles can happen one tiny step at a time.

So don’t imagine your dream that way either.  You know it won’t happen that way any more than your baby girl will instantly transform herself into an adult woman.  Think about the common everyday things you experience all the time.  If you tried to think about how they happen as an indivisible whole, you would be impossibly overwhelmed.

Biologists don’t go to college one day and then understand human biology.  They can begin to understand what is happening only by starting with the most basic and tiny concepts.  Then they string them together and build them up into something bigger.  They might go the other direction by starting with the whole and breaking it into smaller and smaller pieces, but for our purposes that really doesn’t matter.  In either case, they go step by step.  You must do the same.

What do you think?  Leave a comment below. Get Free Updates to The Rat Race Trap by Email here or via a reader in the top left sidebar.  I would love to have you on board.

Note from Stephen: This post is by Jonathan Wells at Advanced Life Skills.  Jonathan has a fantastic blog so please check it out.  He also has written an incredibly useful book called “7 Simple Steps – Life Transformation Guide”.  You can read my review of it here: Review 7 Simple Steps – Life Transformation Guide.

When you think of disabled – what do you think of?

Most of us immediately think of those who are physically disabled because that is usually how the term is applied. I went to the dictionary to find a definition for “disabled” and I was surprised that the first definition was handicapped. Next I looked up the term handicapped and it listed disabled as one of its definitions.

Looking a little deeper I also found the definition “disadvantaged” applied to both of these terms. I also discovered that the dictionary did not restrict these terms to physical challenges but also to mental challenges.

In my mind there is a huge difference between disabled and disadvantaged.

Let’s face it, there are numerous areas in which we can be challenged or handicapped. In fact if you think about it, isn’t it true that we are all somewhat handicapped either physically, mentally, emotionally or socially?

Sometimes we apply the term dysfunctional to relationships, as in the expression “they come from a dysfunctional family.” In this case we could say that the social dynamic of the family is severally handicapped.

So let’s get to the point of this article. Handicapped means challenged and we are all challenged in one way or another. Being physically handicapped is a challenge that others can see. Being mentally, emotionally or socially handicapped may not be so obvious, but it can be equally disabling.

I have a friend named John who is an incredible athlete. Running, bicycling, hiking, weight lifting and just about any sport you can think of, John’s into it. Sadly, due to circumstances beyond his control John recently had to have the lower third of one of his legs amputated.

What would you do if you were in John’s situation? Would you be among that 52% that would rather be dead? Would you consider losing part of one in your legs as a disability or a handicap? Would you consider yourself to be dysfunctional or challenged? Think about that for a minute. Try to put yourself in John’s shoes, so to speak.

Life is full of challenges. It’s up to you whether or not those challenges become disabilities. Nothing has any value except what we assign it. If we decide that our challenges our insurmountable then they become our disabilities. On the other hand, if we view our challenges as opportunities to learn and grow, then our challenges actually contribute to our personal development.

How did John decide to deal with this situation?

Less than a year after his amputation John successfully ran the Monterey Marathon, all 26 miles of it. Last time I saw John we barely had time to speak, why? Because he was so involved in a volleyball game that I did not want to break his concentration. John was an athlete before his amputation and he’s still an athlete today. He did not allow himself to become a victim of his circumstances.

What can we learn from John’s example?

No matter what challenges we face in life, the meaning of those challenges is always our choice. With the right mindset we can overcome any hurdle, rise to any set of circumstances and conquer any challenges.

We can all learn the life skills that will empower us to overcome any physical, mental, emotional or social obstacles that we encounter. Remember, it’s not what happens to you that’s important in the long run – it’s how you decide to deal with it. You do not need to be the victim of your circumstances.

Never allow your challenges to become your disabilities, choose personal growth instead. Make the choice to allow yourself to become the architect of your own life and the designer of your own destiny.

“Within each of us lies the power of our consent to health and sickness, to riches and poverty, to freedom and to slavery. It is we who control these, and not another.” –Richard Bach

What do you think?  Let me know in the comments below.  Subscribe to The Rat Race Trap by Email here or to a reader in the top left sidebar.  I would love to have you aboard.