Play Your Piece at Your Own Pace

Imagine you are a pianist and you're going to play a solo piano piece in a big hall. There is no set theme for your concert and no rehearsal. When you walk on the stage, you're in the spotlight but find no audience is there: You are the only player as well as your own audience. Then what kind of song would you want to play? 

This is not a scene of a horror story which is used to scare you. Actually, I think the scene in front of your eyes exactly describes what our life journey looks like. We could have many kinds of metaphors to describe our life, for example, “an ongoing road”; “a growing tree” or “a high mountain”. If we compare all of them, it is easy to find that the objects conjure up in our mind have the following common features “a lengthy progress”, “it takes long-term effort” and “it keeps growing”. 

In my mind, I love to regard my life journey as a piano concert. We are our own writer, player and even audience. We are our own writer, because it should be us to decide what genre and theme we want to play. It is like how we choose our life goals and decide which direction to go. As our own player, we have to play out what we create. It is like we have to work hard towards our goals and execute what we have written down on our schedule notes. Most importantly, we are our own audience. Like what I said at the beginning, this is a concert with no other audience, so we are not playing a song for anyone else, instead, we are playing it for ourselves. I think this is something we have to always bear in mind. The world is like a giant theatre, everyone is playing their own piano piece in their own hall. As human nature, we would check others progress and compare our own works to others. This is normal and could be a good thing. When we share with each other and listen to others work, we can get inspiration which helps us to create more idea for ourselves. However, it is important to remember that never try to blindly follow others in the exact same way and do not let it impact our own performance that much. 

How can we decide whether a piano piece is good or not? Actually, there is no specific standard. Everyone will have their different opinion about good and bad music. Therefore, we cannot judge our own works based on what others have made. Furthermore, everyone’s work is unique and different. How could we compare two completely different work and decide which one is better than another? 

When thinking about these two questions, I think it can also be implied to our life journey. What I want to say is: everyone’s life is a unique piano piece, we should not compare it too much with other people. The piano piece we create should only be used to satisfy ourselves.

Last month one of my friends talked to me that she's very worried about her future plans. She is planning to enrol in a second master's degree, however, her family and friends think she should find a job and earn money, instead of keep learning. She told me that her friends said she is living in Peter Pan's world where she refuses to move on and stays in the current stage. Well, I believe she's not the only person who heard this claim.

Nowadays many people use "Peter Pan Syndrome" to describe people who did not want to "grow up" and take responsibilities in the real life [1]. But how can we decide one is living in Peter Pan's world? I believe it is a judgement which can only be made by oneself. Sometimes it is just people are having different pace. It is like one decides to have a longer section 2 for their piano piece, which another person chooses to make it shorter and go straight into section 3 earlier. There are various types of music structure, but no absolute right or wrong. If your decisions about life are questioned by other people, the first thing is to review it yourself. Try to ask yourself, "Am I still progressing it?", "Am I following my pace and being consistent?" and "Do I love the current pace?" If you say yes, then don't care too much about other people's opinions, just use it as a reference.

Overall, just keep in mind you are your own player and audience in your life journey. Keep your life going forward under your preferred genre and pace. Your piano piece is beautiful because the rhythm is so unique that it has never been heard and composed before. Your life is colourful because it goes on and is consistent in its own style.

Wholeheartedly, 

The Lights Within

Source:

[1] Nemko M.(2016). The Peter Pan Syndrome. Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/how-do-life/201605/the-peter-pan-syndrome