You'll never know until you try
#111 - a topsy-turvy week of weather and work
Hi there,
We’re into March already (can you believe it?) and January seems like it was ages ago. A lot has happened in these first two months, and now we turn forward, with the end getting closer every time I sit here to write.
It’s been a bumper week for meetings at school, school captain and not. And it’s one of the busiest weeks of the year ahead with house events, a mega Careers Fair and more events and meetings - wish me luck.
Highlight of the week: celebrating my dad’s 50th birthday on Tuesday. After a tiring day at the office, coming home to the prospect of cake and then a big meal out was super. Oh, and you’d love the presents I got him - a bag of Wotsits (a cheesy snack), Rich Tea biscuits, a notebook and a pen cup - talk about sticking by the principle “buy gifts they will use and want”.
In close second for the above, following the music theme from last week, was getting to play and conduct a piece for our school orchestra. As explored before, I was rewarded for being proactive and asking Mr Buxton if I could have a go at conducting. As the cliché goes, “you never know what doors will open” - the one that swung ajar was conducting at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.
In the middle of our performance, I started thinking (which isn’t always useful)
Hmm, we’re doing well here…shall I be brave, pause conducting for a bar, turn around to get the audience clapping along? When’s the right bit to get them started off?
Is it even allowed to get them clapping in such a formal concert hall? What will Mr Buxton think?
A bit of toing and froing later, I put the baton down, turned around (a bit too early in hindsight) and tried to the crowd going. They were slow to respond (🙊) but grew into it and I’d say it added a nice dimension to our performance.
And my doubt was made redundant: no teacher mentioned it to be a problem 🙌. Once again, life rewarding us for being brave, having a go and going outside the comfort zone.
This idea of you don’t know much about it until you try is applicable in so many areas of our life:
Physics topics - our Physics teacher is a preacher of “have a go, chuck yourself into some questions”. Only then will you know, to a better degree, how much you know and what you need to work on.
Eating vegetables - I am (still, getting better though) a picky eater. But it’s true that you won’t know what something tastes like until you’ve eaten it once.
A new TV show - this is a big thing for me, trying to choose the best shows to invest my little telly time into. There is a balance to be struck however between sifting through each of the shows on the app and settling for one to watch it.
When you’re on the fence, go for it - you never know the potential upside of grabbing the opportunity.
That said, as with any of these osrt of pincipes, ther eis a cavet. When zooming out on a bigger life picture and your attitude to trying new things on that scale, there are 2 modes of thinking.
When you’ve got a new expanse in time/effort/energy or are starting a new chapter (at a new company, moved house starting secondary school/university), that is the time to say yes to everything. As I heard from a friend who’s joined the University of Bath this year, say yes to everything and have a go (he’s doing Salsa, Cheerleading and Polo!). Widen the pool of experiences you have, people you meet and potential avenues to go down.
If you’re not at that stage or have reached a time to settle, there needs to be an element of focus and commitment towards a few activities and doing them well. You need to make (the tough) choices between the activities that you like and decide which ones you would like to make your own.
Perhaps we should always have room for both modes - always keeping some spare capacity to try new things and keep life interesting, but also being able to be decisive and our attention and time into endeavour to make it successful, significant and meaningful.
It is similar to the idea of the 2 stages in a creative process being divergence and convergence,that I learned sbou on Tiago Forte’s Forte Labs newsletter.
“Divergence” refers to opening up your senses and taking in new sources of information from the outside world, such as at the start of a new project. “Convergence” refers to shutting off sources of distraction and narrowing your focus to arrive at an end result.
Like a pendulum, for any project, we need to swing between these mindsets. You start a creative endeavour by widening your scope of attention and exploring all the options and information about there. Eventually, you need to come to a conclusion following trade-offs (the harder part for me) because if we don’t, we will end up with very little product to show.
Try something new: you never know where it could take you. Whether it’s picking up a new instrument, listening to another artist or even just convincing yourself to eat cauliflower, you can only make a judgement befitting you if you’ve been through it at least once. In the long run, make sure to explore a variety of possibilities and embraced the full richness of the world around you. But there will come a point of decisions, where you need to give in order to get (greatness).
A nice long post after a while, knitting together a couple of ideas.
Podcast of the week🎙️
Deep Questions with Cal Newport - Ep 264: How to Master Change (with Brad Stulberg)
Great interview (and a 2nd mention in a row) for this podcast; reminder set for a relisten in the summer.
Thing I’m grateful for this week 🙏
Mr Buxton for giving me the chance to conduct, had a lot of fun being abl to wield the baton and make music
Quote of the week 💬
You don't learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over - Richard Branson
Let me know what you are trying or will try soon, as we jump into March with some springtime motivation. I’ll go first - l am trying an online course about the morality of maths, to get to grips with application of maths a bit more.
Adi