Effort doesn’t mean it turns into anything.
Practice helps performance, but it doesn’t guarantee the reception of your performance.
I don’t know what to call this lesson.
Maybe, the myth of merit?
I just know the reminders of it are deeply felt and - it’s also pretty forgiving, the more I’m learning to accept it.
Bob Odenkirk had a line in Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama that went, “I tried just as hard at the stuff that didn’t work as the stuff that did work.”
Talk about a brutal truth.
I’ve tried just as hard at making music work as I did trying to balance a cash drawer as a part-time teller.
I’ve tried just as hard to write one of these Cultish Creative posts as I did trying to perfect a term paper I was cramming in at the last minute.
I’ve tried just as hard to make a podcast more popular as I’ve tried to get two people I think should meet to find one god forsaken overlapping hour on each of their calendars without revealing who the other is to keep it all a secret.
Effort does make a difference.
You just don’t always get to pick when or where.
The internal compass is practice. Your practice. With some true north in your mind, where you know that’s how you’re getting better if you move in that direction, and it’s a quiet truth we all have to learn to love.
