“A fifty-year-old man approached a musician and asked, ‘Can you teach me to play the trombone so I can play in the town civic band and in parades and other things?”
‘Sure,’ the musician said.
‘How long will it take?’ the aspiring trombonist asked.
‘Well,’ the musician said, ‘I could teach almost anybody to play anything he wanted to play in five years’ time.’
‘Five years!’ the would-be student said. ‘I’ll be fifty-five years old by then!’
‘Yes, you will,’ the musician returned. ‘And how old will you be in five years if you don’t learn how to play the trombone?'” (Parenting with Love and Logic by Foster Cline and Jim Fay, pp. 101)
Sometimes I think there are things in life we really want to do. A hobby. A new career.
Maybe you want to play guitar…I’ve been saying, and attempting that since I was 19. Man I wish I had just started.
Maybe you want to write a book.
Maybe you want to take a trip.
I’m not sure what it is for you. But sometimes I think there are things really want to invest in, but we want it to happen immediately, therefore, we forfeit it because of what it would require from us.
We are like the man who wanted to be able to play the trombone today, rather than five years from now. So we just quit, or we don’t even start.
Do you have something like that in your life?
