Inspired by this: https://alexandertechnique.com/articles2/howmanylessons/
I don’t even know what the Alexander Technique is. But the article is a tremendous example of reframing a question.
A student wants to learn the Alexander Technique and asks the teacher how long this will take. She writes:
Now, my student is expecting a certain type of answer to this question, probably either a time-related answer (x number of months) or an answer about application (depends on how much you practice). Instead, I asked a question in return, and asked the class to answer it. How about you have a go, too!
How long does it take to learn the violin?
She answers her own question:
How quickly you progress in anything does depend on the quality and frequency of your practice. And learning is indeed a constantly evolving process. But if we settle for these answers, when will be finished learning how to play the violin?
Never.
That’s a depressing way to frame reality, isn’t it? You will be shoveling snow uphill in Hell in the summertime. Forever.
Why even bother. Let’s just die right now, shall we?
Here’s the reframing:
So what if we turned this on its head? Try this for size. As soon as we know that if we pluck or draw a bow across the string of the violin, and that we can change the note by changing the length of the string, we can play the violin. Everything else is refinement.
Can you see that this way of looking at the issue is instantly empowering? A couple of basic facts, and we have the basic tools to go away and work the rest out entirely by ourselves, if we choose to. How fantastic!
When am I going to have a good life? When am I going to be happy? When am I going to be skilled in activity X? Now. And then you refine and expand it forever, as far as you care to go.
I have demonstrated this in my own life. Every five years or so I think “Well, I have this nailed.” (Whatever “this” happens to be, but most noticeably in my spiritual development.) “I’m so advanced, sophisticated, and enlightened. Unlike that dumb, arrogant know-it-all bastard I was five years ago. He was fucking clueless.”
This has continued for thirty-plus years. Constant work on self. Reading. Thinking. Talking about these principles. Help and guidance from others.
There is no reason to expect this to stop.
World without end, Amen.