Who am I and why am I writing motivational articles?
I am a music teacher suffering from fibromyalgia and find it difficult to practice my profession. Anyway, there are only so many times you can hear "twinkle, twinkle little star" without going crazy.
As a music teacher, my special talent was motivating my students. I never had problems with any of my students practising their piano or violin. The occasional one or two, but those were the original non-musicians who wouldn't have what it takes to be musicians anyway.
There was this one boy, Andrew. He was an eleven year old, and just took to piano like a duck to water. If you phoned his mum any time of the day or night, you would hear the piano going in the background. He progressed very quickly and hated holidays. He needed his weekly motivation to keep going. Eventually he moved to Australia, and told me before he left that he was going to do music in High School. They had already gone over for a visit and he chose his school and his subjects.
Another little one, Alex, was only four years old. Her mother and I decided to let her sister Sarah compete in the piano competitions, but to wait with Alex for the next year, because she was too young. Alex was very upset. We decided to have an end-of-year "concert" and Alex put on her best dress, walked up to the piano in an upright, regal sort of way, played beautifully in front of the others and their parents, bowed correctly at the applause, and gave us each a dirty look as if to say: "See, I can do it! I am NOT too young."
Mum and I stood corrected. We never denied her a competition since then. Although in our defence, there wasn't an age group for her in the competitions.
Sarah got a first and second place, and she was also one of those where you could hear the piano in the background at any random time you phoned her mother.
All my kids loved music, they loved practising and they couldn't wait for their lessons every week. Every week they had a little surprise. Sometimes it was a sticker, sometimes a toy, sometimes a little chocolate or biscuit. And all just for practising your piano!
Anyway, my point is that I love motivating people. I love creating a sparkle in the eyes and a "I've done it! I've reached my goal!" feeling from them. Nothing beats that.
So here I am. I ask that if you feel motivated in any way, please leave a comment. It will make my day :-)
