You mean some people are interested in the goal and others in the process?
I would eat my piano if you could find study material to learn any language that's not english in the library of the city that I used to live in, my current city doesn't even have a library...
A recent message by bronnestam made me think of something.Every once in a while there'll be someone who says something like "I want to learn a foreign language." Well, you know that's not true! If it was, the person would be learning it. He could go to the library, today, get some study materials, and begin without even spending a dime. But he doesn't want to learn it, he wants to have learned it. It's an important difference.Piano is like that, too.
Desire isn't binary. The fact that most single men don't take the action of writing deranged letters to their favourite female movie stars inviting them round for a quick shag, doesn't mean that they don't genuinely "want" to sleep with them. You can genuinely want something yet not get around to doing anything about or, or be in a position where it doesn't appear realistically within reach. By all means point out that they obviously don't want it ENOUGH, but we really don't need to start redefining the English language in order to make the point.
All true, I can't disagree with anything here.Something that can also be very important is the expectation of success--you might want the result, you might be willing to put a lot of work into it, but if you think you're not in a position to actually achieve that goal, it may not be rational to even start working towards it. (Unless you see value in the process itself.)And maybe "I want to learn a foreign language" is just an imprecise way to say "I want to know a foreign language". But if you really want to "learn" it, then start learning it. It's an infinitely more achievable goal than mastering a foreign language.
I have been into this affirmation stuff thinking for decades by now, long before anyone had heard about "The Secret" ... The concept has been misused and misinterpreted many many times, and people have even made money from trashing it. But it works, it definitely works, and I have got it proved more times than I can count. I have learned that if you want to be or have something, you will probably get it if you only have the courage to go for it. You can always make up excuses, there are probably one million of them, but most of them are really nothing but excuses. I don't know what post of mine the OP referred to above, but actually I agree. People often tell me that they want this and they want that, and when I say "why don't you just do it, then?" I am FLOODED by explanations and excuses, some good, and some really really bad. But to go to the source of the problem, people often do not quite know what they really want. We have the recurring question here at the forum, something like this: "so guys, I am 24 years old and I have just started to play the piano. Do you think I have any chances to become a famous concert pianist? I learned La Campanella in a week and people say I am really good. What do you think?"Here we get the standard bunch of replies: "Of course not, unless you did not start at the age of 3 you are lost, man" or "Of course, if you just put your mind into it, you can do whatever you want" or "how the h*ll are WE supposed to know, we have not even heard you play!"I usually reply with No. 2, but at the same time ... well, if you really want to become a famous concert pianists, then you should not bother to hang on a stupid Internet forum, asking questions to a bunch of ignorant strangers. You should be far too occupied WORKING on your new career to have time to even be on the Internet, even less to ask about opinions from strangers. Question is: what do you REALLY want in this case? Ok, so I want to be a famous pianist myself. Or rather, I would love to be on stage, dressed like a queen, and receive beautiful flowers while a big, roaring audience gives me standing ovations and fans gather at my feet, yelling for my attention, and critics write raving reviews about my talent and people at Pianostreet rank me as Leading Lady of the whole piano world. Yes, I want praise, I want to have nice dresses, I want to get lovely flowers and tons of flattering attention. I want to live my life at a truly magnificent Steinway D - we would look SO GOOD together! - and I want to socialize with interesting celebrities and life The Good Life in general and be a guest at David Letterman and ...All right, you got it. I also want to master this wonderful music which I adore. But what about the dark side of fame, do I want that too? Do I want to practice day and night and sacrifice practically everything else I enjoy? Do I want to live half my life in impersonal hotel rooms and uncomfortable flights, do I want to sit there alone in the dark when the audience has gone home, do I want the difficult economical conditions, the mean critics, the creepy stalkers, the rough venues, the horror pianos, the conductors from hell, the stage fright, the tough competition, the pain in my hands? I know enough about the life of concert pianists to know that it is not that glamorous. That you could become the MOST FAMOUS of them all - still the majority of the world population won't know who you are, and/or not give a d*mn. So the truth is that I don't want to become a famous pianist at all. I want to live a good life. I want ... to be happy. It is as simple as that. And I ALSO want to play and learn music pieces, but I have realized that I need nobody else's praise to do that. I am happy when I sit here in my own nice living room and learn something new, and that fame thing ... well, maybe I can get it in some other way then. Maybe I don't have to be on that stage, by the way. I can just as well sit in the audience and look good. I can buy flowers for myself. This is a photo from my lving room, this is the reality in which I live. I play that piece, not very well, but if I want to hear a master's version I have it on a CD. So? If you "want" something, then investigate thoroughly what you REALLY want in this. You will most likely get what you want, if you just want it badly enough, and if you really know what it is.
I usually reply with No. 2, but at the same time ... well, if you really want to become a famous concert pianists, then you should not bother to hang on a stupid Internet forum, asking questions to a bunch of ignorant strangers. You should be far too occupied WORKING on your new career to have time to even be on the Internet, even less to ask about opinions from strangers.
Also regarding positive thinking, you don't magically become a concert pianist just because you want it enough. And neither does its logical counterpart follow that anyone who doesn't reach concert standard necessarily wasn't dedicated enough. I know people who practised 8 hours per day but who were awful pianists. Anyone who thinks that means they didn't really "want" it enough would be totally missing the point. Putting the effort in gives a chance, not a guarantee of success. When positive thinking turns into delusional blind optimism, it's a lucky and small handful indeed who get to their end goal.