I sat down for my 20 minutes of guitar practice at the end of the day and groaned. After 2 days of postponing working on a chord sequence that involved 2 very difficult chords given where I am at – the B flat/C# and the F barre chord.
I first got my fingers in the F barre chord position and gave it a strum. Some sound. Positive. Tried switching to the C# and I cried out “Impossible!”. I attempted doing 5 switches from F to C# and found myself wincing in pain. A couple of the fingers were well and truly cut (again!) by now.
While I was groaning about the difficulty of the task to myself, three things happened subconsciously.
First, I reminded myself that the elephant part of my mind regularly lied to me about what’s possible in an attempt to keep me happy. The elephant, while operating in my best interests, operates on the assumption is that I am happiest in the comfort zone. It doesn’t quite get the difference between instant gratification and long term happiness. Luckily, my rider does.
Then, my rider took over and announced to the elephant that we ought to go on, despite the obvious pain, because it’s the right thing to do. But the elephant didn’t quite agree with what the rider thought and being the big animal that it is, refused to budge.
That’s when the rider struck a bargain to appease the elephant. 3 rounds of 10 switches between the chords – we do that and we stop. I heard the elephant relent.
And as we resumed progress, my rider gently reminded the elephant that he thought the open F chord was impossible just a few months ago and during the break, whipped up a tune to show him how easy it’s become. The elephant became more enthusiastic and committed (for 10 minutes) to be of help.
The next night, the elephant is less problematic. This time, we agree on 3 rounds of 20 switches at a faster pace. Grunting his approval, we keep practicing and gradually begin the process of committing these chords to my muscle memory.
And as my elephant and rider slowly reconcile their differences with help from me in using my will power reserves as necessary to aid the rider, I remind myself that every time we hit a peak in our learning or growth, getting to the next peak involves going through a valley. This is always painful but going through this process is what makes the peaks memorable..
A Learning a Day 
