Songs We Never Practice

He had an incredible insight about his relationship with his daughter. Then I reminded him what it is to be a song-writer: 

He writes songs. He practices them. He performs them.

We need to do the same with insights: practice them.

If you ask him and other song writers, they often claim that they didn’t write the songs themselves - the songs were written through them.

Insights also usually show up that way - insights come from somewhere else, but they sit like truth within us.

...Someone says just the right thing, in just the right way, at just the right time.

...We come across a social media post that resonates deeply.

...We read a line in a book, hear a line in a song, see a line spoken in a show...

And it resonates. It’s clear and we feel it. It’s Truth.

Here’s how we often treat insights, though: like a song we want to perform, but one we never practice.

Imagine writing a song from pure insight and inspiration, spoken to you with the light of Grace, then never practicing it. One day you get on stage to perform it, and it doesn't go well. 

We do the same with insights.

"I guess the song just wasn’t great!" "I guess it wasn't Truth I felt at all."

Or perhaps you just never practiced it.

I’ve heard it said that insights are a dime a dozen. Said another way, Insights are Cheap.

But insights aren’t cheap - we cheapen insights by not practicing them.

We cheapen them by not honoring them. We cheapen them by forgetting them. We cheapen them by thinking they'll work on us without us being willing to work on them.

We think an insight is one-and-done. A get-it-and-forget-it. Like an enlightenment that just sticks forever.

And if it doesn’t stick, well it just wasn’t truth then, was it?

That’s a myth. 

Like a great song, insights need to be practiced, rehearsed, memorized, embodied. Otherwise, it’s just a fleeting experience.

My client? Here’s what he took away from this conversation: unconditional love for his daughter, blessing and wishing her and others well, optimism and hope - they’re practices. They need to be repeated. They need to be worked into the depths of our being. 

How do you think we learned to be pessimistic and fearful beings? Getting that repeated all around us. Repeating all that within ourselves. 

Insight is a song that needs to be practiced. We can’t expect to live it out loud and on stage when faced with challenges and difficulties - we need to train the mind, the heart, the body (and it's nervous system) to live the truths we know are true. 

They’re not one-and-done. They’re songs to be practiced. 

Practice on. 🙌