Balancing Aspiration With Perspiration

There is never enough time in the day to do all of the stuff that I wish I could do.

Begin Rant…

To be specific, there are three hobbies that I quite enjoy, but that I need to do regularly to improve at all on them. Work, family, eating, sleeping… these things all get in the way (and, no doubt, so they should). But it’s a shame. I often wish I had more hours in the day to devote to the following:

Running

Now that I’ve passed that magical age of 30, my body doesn’t rebound from injury immediately like it used to. According to my physiotherapist, my left patella in particular (that’s “kneecap” for you biologically ignorant) doesn’t track properly. This results in an ache that develops after I run for about 20 minutes or so.

It’s a curable condition — the answer is to work up to running long distance. Rather than do no running for two months, then suddenly decide that I feel like jogging 5kms one day (which is the approach I’ve always taken), now I have to work up to it. I need to, for example, on one day run for 2 minutes then walk for 8. Then do that again. And again. And then on the following night change this routine so that I am running for 3 minutes and walking 7, and repeating this. After a few weeks of slowly increasing the load on my knee, I’ll be able to run for half an hour without my knee being in complete agony.

I tried this, and it worked. But then I stopped running regularly. And now I’m back to square one. I do ride to work and swim twice a week, so I’m still keeping fit. But who has time to run every day?

Drawing

A friend from work bought me some art paper and some coloured pencils for my Kris Kringle present at Christmas last year, thinking that it might ignite that artistic flair within that he knows exists. I added it to the pile of art paper and coloured pencils that I have sitting at home that I have bought myself over the years — every folder of art paper contains drawings on the first three or so pages, and the rest of the folder is blank.

I used to feel inspiration and a driving urge to want to draw all sorts of things. These days it feels more like an obligation in order to discover my own unique style, in order to differentiate my artwork from the masses of drawings that already exist in the world. I used to channel a creative energy and the drawing would be the result of that channeling. These days I feel guilty for not being creative. It’s not a good thing.

However, once I begin, I start to enjoy it again. It’s just that getting started that’s the problem. And there’s just never enough time.

Playing Music

I first picked up a guitar when I was 22. I had just returned from my first trip overseas full of enthusiasm for life and the world, and took some beginner’s lessons at Melbourne Uni. Even after only knowing five or six basic chords, I began writing songs. Lyrics came to me without me trying — lyrics about my vegetarian ex-girlfriend, a guy in a pub who bragged about watching porn, and an apology to my girlfriend (now wife) for being an ass that ended up being quite a powerful tune and brought her to tears when I sang it to her.

I substituted the six string guitar for a four string bass when living in Japan. Some friends and I started a band, wrote original rock and roll songs and practiced every two weeks in a rehearsal studio. The group dynamic and the evolution of the songs we wrote was an incredible buzz, and was just the motivation I needed to practice every day. I inhaled the music theory that I had snubbed back in my Year 10 music class; I mastered pentatonic scales in every key, knew how the different modes related to each other and could churn quickly through each of them using a number of alternate fingerings.

Then the band broke up, I gave my bass to a friend, and we returned to Australia. That was three years ago. These days I’d be lucky if I could play an awkward G major chord on either instrument without producing an embarrassing twang.

But I’m Not Complaining…

So there you go. Dreams and goals become intertwined and fall by the wayside for a new book that needs to be edited, dinner that needs to be cooked or a bedtime story that needs to be read. I know that if I want to pursue any of those things that I need to make a dedicated effort — possibly document each practice session so that I can chart my progress as I improve.

Or I can take that spare half hour when I’m not obligated to be doing anything and just curl up on the sofa with a good book.

That’s not being lazy, is it?

Tags: dreams, hobbies, rant

posted: 20.02. 2007, 00:49 (0)