Living in the moment
So I just finished my orchestra concert at Brandeis, and I must say that I played a lot better than at the concert at Wellesley. I had a completely different mindset from last night. Before I started playing today, I said to myself, “You know what? I don’t care what people think. As long as I enjoy what I’m doing. I am going to enjoy this. I am going to do this for myself.” So that’s what I did. Instead of playing meticulously, trying not to make any mistakes, I played for my own enjoyment. In the middle of the piece I said to myself, “You know, I’m really enjoying this moment right now. Who cares if I make a mistake. Whatever.” Anyway, its amazing how such a mindset affected my performance. I have never played Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 so well. During the difficult sections I was completely relaxed and didn’t care if I made a mistake. To my amazement I played all of the difficult sections PERFECTLY. After the concert, the conductor told me that I did really good job on all of the difficult sections. This is when I realized, you know, I really should stop worrying about what others think. I should just do whatever I enjoy. Perhaps, I may even do a better job on it too if I take the pressure off of myself. Such a mindset can be applied to many aspects of life. I think I’ll start doing it.