Talent development 2: beware perfectionism

I would like to follow-up my post of two days ago, Secret to top-notch development of one's talent, with an important caveat.

I emphasized that you must be able to honestly and accurately criticize yourself if you are to develop your natural gifts to the highest possible degree. This is true. However, there are some whose natural disposition can cause them to fall into a nasty problem as they try to do this. I am speaking of the nasty vice of perfectionism.

It is good to want to do your best and try your best as you work on developing your talent. However, this can become perverted by perfectionism. Excessive perfectionism is actually one of the myriad subtle forms of pride rearing its ugly head. It is one thing to recognize a flaw and then work to remove it; it is another to become obsessed with being "perfect" at all costs. The former is good; the latter, bad. And it can be difficult to accurately distinguish between the two, especially in regard to oneself.

I have no foolproof solution for preventing perfectionism while still maintaining appropriately high standards. But, I do think that simply being aware of this potential pitfall is a very helpful first step toward avoiding it.

Following are a few suggestions as to how we might recognize when we are sliding towards being excessively perfectionistic (i.e. self-absorbed in a prideful way, which is unhealthy) rather than appropriately self-critical (which is healthy). For the sake of being specific, I will have in mind a musician who has just finished a practice session (something of which I have experience from my younger days).


Immediately after practicing . . .

1. Are you angry, hurt, or upset? These are signs of perfectionism (or, of biting off more than you can chew, or trying to excel at something in which you truly do not have much talent). A person who practices with humility and patience can be highly self-critical and demanding of himself yet at the end of a practice session will be at peace; he will not be angry. He should be able to enjoy the spiritual exhilaration that comes with doing something he loves and for which he has talent even while being physically and mentally tired. Prideful perfectionism ruins this inner delight while healthy self-criticism does not. Imagine the difference between a musician storming off a stage seething versus leaving the stage essentially joyful and grateful. Practice should be like this as well.

2. Can you practice alongside others who are more advanced than you are without being envious of them or angry at your own shortcomings? A mature and humble approach to developing one's talent accepts that there is a curve of growth that everyone must go through. And while the rate of the curve is steeper at first, a great musician never stops learning and growing. Also, aspiring musicians know that in order to be the best they can be it is essential to play with others who are more advanced. Solo practice, as necessary as it is, can never duplicate the irreplaceable value of playing alongside accomplished masters. Musicians who have the potential to be great know this and take every opportunity when they are young to learn all they can from those whom they aspire to emulate. Prideful young musicians would rather play in mediocre groups where they can stand out as the best. Humble young musicians who are serious about being the best they can be do not avoid situations where they are not the star of the group--they hunger for chances where this is the case so they can continue to grow and learn.

3. Were you focused on giving your all for the sake of the music, or were you occupied with imagining yourself as the center of attention in future performances? There is a big difference between demanding the best of yourself because you passionately love and respect the greatness of the musical arts, versus wanting to be good because you desire attention and praise. The former attitude is selfless and conducive to great artistry; the latter is selfish and stifles great artistry.

So these are a few ideas that hopefully might help to evaluate our motivations as we strive to develop our God-given gifts. We want to hit that mature place where we can be humble and selfless even as we are demanding and critical of ourselves, all the time keeping a healthy perspective that the human endeavor in which we are engaged is about something bigger and more important than ourselves. Themes that summarize this balanced attitude would be: 1) giving rather than taking, 2) gratitude and appreciation for the gifts of others, and 3) learning rather than showing off.

In my opinion, great musicians who are blessed to have long careers, are beloved by the public, and who will end up contributing the most to the enrichment of human culture are able to maintain an approach whereby they love their art more than praise (and thus see music as bigger than their own personal careers), never lose great respect and appreciation for their peers and forebears, and understand that no matter how accomplished they become they will never know it all and will never cease learning more about their art and growing as an artist.

New book on beauty for women

I am happy to note that Gina Loehr (formerly Gina Giambrone), sister of newly ordained Dominican priest (one of my former classmates and brothers in religion and still a good friend), Fr. Anthony Giambrone, has recently completed her second book. Published by Servant Books, is Choosing Beauty: A 30-Day Spiritual Makeover For Women. [Amazon link here]

About a week ago I happened to be tuned in to EWTN radio in my car and up came an hour-long interview with Gina about her new book. She was interviewed by host Steve Wood on the Faith & Family radio program and did a great job. Gina's book (while I haven't read it, I did hear her speak about it on the radio) is about authentic beauty (which is spiritual and physical both), and how women can pursue beauty by nurturing the virtues.

I'm sure the book is very good. And Gina comes from the perspective of a young woman (now a wife and mother) who in younger days did not always embrace her faith wholeheartedly. So, as her Catholic faith has grown she has gone through a transformation of how she understands beauty, becoming more aware of the difference between what our society says is beautiful, versus the real thing.

Congratulations Gina on your book!

Secret to top-notch development of one's talent

Have you ever wondered why some people with a natural talent for something (e.g. music) are never able to develop that talent very well, while others do (assuming they want to and try to)?

To my observation, here is an absolutely crucial component to be found among the personal traits of those who achieve top-notch development of their natural gifts: you must be able to honestly and accurately criticize yourself. You must be your own harshest critic. And you must nurture this ability so that you become faster and ever more accurate at evaluating how you are progressing. Folks with a talent for something who never become good at self-evaluation will not be able to develop their talent to its fullest potential. Two elements come together here: a highly-tuned self awareness, and humility.

There are many people with a high degree of natural ability to do something who never become great at it because they are too proud to tell themselves when the result is below what it should be. Those who become great are able to tell themselves with brutal honesty when something is not right or is not as good as it could be or should be. They do not accept the status quo from themselves when they know they could do better.
[Update: Here is a good example of this in action from writer and blogger Jennifer Fulwiler]

This subject comes to my mind in the context of being somewhat of a fan of one of those TV cooking shows: Top Chef. The best chefs always have an outstanding ability to evaluate their own food--to know what is wrong as well as what is right with their efforts.

The same is true of great musicians, great athletes, and great artists. The cycling phenomenon Lance Armstrong certainly has many athletic gifts. But, he would never be the legend he is today had he not developed those gifts with a very regimented and exacting program of training during which he was keenly aware of how he was performing, always striving to push himself to his personal best, never accepting a poor effort from himself.

An Olympic-level archer knows when the arrow leaves the bow if something is off with his shot--it doesn't feel quite right. Top musicians are much more critical of their own playing than the vast majority of their audiences. They have a finely developed ear for their music and can hear and feel the subtlest of differences in tone, energy, pitch, etc., in their playing.

It is a sad thing when a person with an especially high level of talent for something sabotages himself with his own blindness. Pride blinds that critical auxiliary gift of astute self-evaluation that all great artists, chefs, musicians, etc. have. If we want to honor God and inspire and exhilarate others with our gifts to the highest degree possible we need humility, self-awareness, and honest self evaluation as constant companions. Helpful toward this end is never to forget that all our gifts come from our Creator. While He wants us to develop our gifts as best we can and use them for the benefit of others, He will not look approvingly upon our efforts when we fail to do so because of the inevitable blindness caused by vainglory. Humility, among other needed virtues, lays a foundation for the fullest unlocking of the beauty latent within our natural talents.

Joe Satriani 2; importance of developing your craft the right way

Following up from my first Satriani post, here is another segment from the Joe Satriani interview that I especially like. This clip is part 10 (of 11 total).
[Apologies again for the wide frame]




I transcribed the comments I think are the most illuminating:

There’s no substitute for practicing. Students have to be completely honest with themselves about what they don’t know, and that they have to get on track and start learning it. . . . You don’t have to learn it all today, but do something where every day you get better and better. . . . It’s really quite obvious, we just have to be very straightforward with ourselves, and that’s how we arrange our practicing. But I would say that, and I remind students all the time, they will not have a career based on the demonstration of practice techniques. [. . .]

The ultimate goal is playing music, being evocative, lifting people’s spirits, being an entertainer; it’s all part of it. The practicing is supposed to help you do that. [. . .]

Find out what it’s like to play for human beings. . . . I don’t want to reduce it to a job, but I mean that’s what a musician does; Society wants musicians to make music for them—I mean, that’s what we’re supposed to be doing. So, if you’re practicing and it’s not helping you do that, well then you’re not practicing right. [emphasis mine]

I think the key phrase above can be altered to apply to all realms of art:

Society wants artists to make art for them. That's what artists are supposed to be doing. Indeed!

By this, I mean that great art is made both for the artist and for his audience. It's the for the audience part that I think, especially in artistic realms outside music (which immediately dies as a money-earning venture if it ignores the audience), tends to get lost today. Great art involves a relationship, a community of sorts, between artist and audience.

Joe Satriani on music

I have been getting reacquainted via the wonder of YouTube with one of my favorite musicians I used to listen to some years back: the incredible rock guitarist, Joe Satriani. He is one of a handful of instrumental electric guitar players who is successful as a solo musician. He is a "guitar player's guitar player."

Joe (known also as "Satch") is the youngest of five children from an Italian family. I assume he is probably Catholic, but I don't know for sure. His style is mostly hard rock, but, in my opinion, his music is very purposeful, very musical, and very distinctive. His songs can be quite beautiful, imaginative, and melodic, even as they are "rock'n." He doesn't just thrash for the sake of thrashing. He plays with a musical vision clearly in mind and communicates that vision well through his playing. If great electric guitar playing interests you, check out some of Satriani's live performances here, here, and here. (The last one, "Flying in a Blue Dream," is awesome!)

One of the things I like about Satriani, as is evident from interviews with him, is that he is not a stereotypical rocker with a big ego and a party-hard attitude. He seems to be a very down-to-earth, really nice guy. And he takes his music very seriously--a dedicated, hard-working musician. He is first and foremost a professional musician and artist. This is one reason why his career has been primarily as a solo artist. He prefers to perform his own songs rather than play someone else's music. In this way (he remarked in an interview), he can maintain a strong personal, emotional attachment to every piece of music. Each song has a unique personal meaning for him and comes out of a particular mental world to which he returns as he performs; each one transports him to a certain emotional place. And this is what he prefers as a performing artist.

I found an 11 segment video interview with Joe on YouTube, part of a "Living Legends Music" series. The whole interview is very interesting. But I want to highlight two parts. The first in this post, and the second in a post following this.

Here is part 9 of the interview
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The following items from this segment struck me as especially interesting. They remind me of themes that are similar to previous posts I have made about music and art.

1. Speaking of how his music is always under development and that his experience of life is always in contact with his musical art,

My way of dealing with it [life] has always been to internalize it and turn it into music, that’s what I do. So I write all the time. Maybe an eighth of what I write winds up being heard by the public.

2. And this remark is suggestive to me of the dual goals that good artists have to hold together harmoniously if they are going to create art that an audience can relate to and that has a chance of lasting--the twin goals of being faithful to your own personal artistic vision and of creating art that is accessible to and mindful of your audience.

During the playing of a song, part of me is on some sort of, um, trip—I don’t know how to explain it. I’m sure there’s a part of me that is being the professional musician, keeping it together, making sure that I represent this melody the way the fans need it to be represented. [emphasis mine]

Satriani has a well developed sense of how a good song is both a) unique, personal, special to the artist creating it, and b) something the audience can attach to and love as well. This involves using a dynamic interplay of the artist’s unique inner vision together with perennial sounds and ideas loved by his audience.

In this segment he also spoke about dealing with and preparing for the unexpected in performances, and, making each song unique and connecting to each emotionally.

Schizophrenia in our treatment of human life

Here is a thought-provoking video put together by Justice for All. It asks a very good question pertaining to the schizophrenia that exists in our laws. One sort of death is considered legal, even a "right"; the other is prosecuted in most states as murder. Should we treat them differently? Watch the video to see what they mean.



[HT, Jill Stanek]

Family headship; dryness in prayer

I would like to give accolades to a very good blogger I have come across recently. She is Jennifer Fulwiler and her blog is Conversion Diary. She used to be a feminist atheist and is now Catholic and married with children.

On August 12 she wrote an insightful post, "Why it makes sense to be obedient to my husband." In it she describes how her thinking has changed from being against the idea (as it would be contrary to woman's equal value) to being in favor of it. She approaches the subject from several angles including leadership, limitations, equality, fairness, motivation, providence, and love. If this subject interests you, it is well worth reading.

I would also like to highly recommend an excellent post Jennifer wrote, "The greatest nothing I ever felt." She writes about the issue of emotionally intense prayer as compared to more spiritually quiet, dryer prayer, and how God helped her realize during adoration that a close relationship to Christ does not always have to translate into intensely moving prayer experiences. Here is an excerpt:

Other women began to sniffle and lean their heads on the pews, and I grabbed a couple Kleenex from the box next to me for when my own powerful experience began. As regular readers know, God rarely speaks to me so clearly as when I'm in Adoration, . . . and it seemed inevitable that going to Adoration in such a beautiful chapel surrounded by such God-loving women at such a Christ-centered retreat would leave me open to the Lord's promptings as never before. I crossed myself, prayed, gazed at the monstrance, and waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

Jennifer addresses a subject that is very relevant for many Christians striving to grow closer to Christ--especially for those whose personalities tend to be highly passionate. Later in her post she writes,

I realized that this relatively new understanding of God gave me a certain kind of joy. It wasn't a shout-from-the-rooftops, overwhelming kind of joy borne of a powerful visceral reaction to some event; rather, it was the calm, steady, quiet joy borne of knowledge of the truth.

If you sometimes struggle wondering why the Lord does not always grant the consolations in prayer that you desire, do check out Jennifer's comments in full.