All The Information

How many times have you caught yourself searching the internet for an answer? Or, just for "a little more" information? 

Most of us use the internet this way all the time without even thinking twice. 

You might want to know what spice to substitute when you are missing an ingredient. Perhaps you are looking for information about a piece or composer, or you aren’t feeling well and have taken a deep dive on WebMD looking for the reason. 

We’re curious creatures, and there is a lot we want to know. Learning is for a lifetime. It's good for us, and helps us become better at our jobs and being human.

But I don’t really believe our desire to learn is the ultimate driver of endless internet searching.

What I really believe moves us to look endlessly for all these types of answers is our desire for an easy solution. 

Surely with all the information that’s out there someone can tell me exactly why my high G sharps are not centered or consistent. There has to be somewhere on the internet that could solve that, right? 

I am as guilty of this type of searching as the next person - self improvement newsletters, books, and websites are a dime a dozen. It is so enticing to think that the answer is already out there somewhere. 

Why do you think everyone can make so much money online selling courses and programs? 

On the flip side of finding the easy solutions is hours of time spent searching and very little time spent experiencing.

(Please don’t get me wrong, we can find a lot of helpful information on the internet - obviously I hope that my blog is helpful! -  but at some point we need to try for ourselves.) 

If I'm being honest, most of my internet searches leave me with a feeling of having all the information and no solid answer. That's because so much of what we understand and are able to do is dependent on our own personal experience.

Lately, I have consciously put a lot of energy and focus on stepping away from the unlimited resources that are available online and exploring my own personal resources: experience, the tangible feelings of practice, and investigating possible solutions by accessing the information I already have and my experiences in the moment. 

Doing this hasn't gotten me anywhere quickly, but it has moved me infinitely further ahead than spending hours looking for someone to tell me how to fix those G sharps. 

We don’t move forward by simply reading or watching how someone else has done it. We have to feel our way through. Only by building on our own experiences do we continue to step forward.