I recently started to play a game called “The World Ends With You.” The game has an excellent soundtrack all around, but there is a song that sticks out to me as being particularly groovy. In case you’re interested, you can listen to it here. In the latest iteration of the game, a remaster with a few new additions, the developers offer you a choice between the original soundtrack and a remixed soundtrack. For the song linked above, upon listening to each version side by side, I found that I preferred the original version. There wouldn’t be anything wrong with that were it not for what followed; as I went through my analysis of the two songs in my head, I found myself assigning all sorts of “unprofessional” words to describe their differences, followed by my inner critic pointing out that those sophomoric descriptors would never pass snuff with a *real* musician. I became focused on the simplicity of my analysis, convinced that I’d never be able to state it out loud for fear of being judged a musical idiot. A bit neurotic, perhaps, but also hopefully relatable, as many of us have had experiences of judging ourselves and others for not being good enough. Instead of letting that inner critic derail your best intentions, it is liberating to learn to accept that certain things are not perfect, that all of us are growing, and that while we can and should attempt to continue improving and not rest complicit in ignorance, we only harm ourselves by harsh judgements.
That said, let’s dig into that example a bit more. Specifically, I felt the original version of the song was more straightforward, more consistently fitting in its approach and structure. Certain aspects felt sharper, more jagged, but in a way that really fit with the aura of the song. It just works well together, whereas it felt like the remix altered the identity of the song in a way that makes it less cohesive, less attractive overall. As I thought those thoughts, my inner critic stepped in and started thinking about how a professional musician might judge my comments. I could immediately feel the cold smirk of pity, oh you poor simpleton, what a cute description. And despite the fact that this is some fictional exchange that has not actually taken place, that professional musician that lives in my head managed to convince me that my ideas and thoughts were stupid, and I immediately moved to delete them from memory. Until, that is, I noticed what was happening.
Once I realized that the professional musician I invented in my head wasn’t actually real and nothing more than the product of my thoughts, I started to think about how it would be a real bummer if no one felt comfortable talking about things unless what they were about to say was of “professional” quality. Talk about a boring world! The reality is that we’re all constantly learning new information and incorporating that into our existing knowledge base. If you think about it, that’s basically the definition of learning. As such, we’re all at different stages of learning about all different things in life…and there are a lot of things! There’s no way we could all be masters of everything. You may be less informed on one subject, but you’re surely more informed on something else. So, it is helpful to learn to accept wherever you’re at in your own education, and speak truth to your wisdom, wherever you lie on the spectrum.
It’s also valuable to consider that where you think you are on the spectrum might not actually be where you are. If our totality of knowledge about music could be ranked on scale of 1-100, and you think you’re a 15, you might only actually be a 6. Or, you could be a 20. Who knows! We don’t have some official arbiter to judge us. Speaking for myself, I can think of many times in my life where I really, truly thought I was right about something, and then I ended up being wrong. Thankfully the frequency of this occurrence has lessened over the course of my life as I continue to learn my own habits and respect what I do and don’t know for certain. The trick is to balance that necessary restraint—the recognition that we know some things and that we don’t know others—with what this blog is about, which is accepting where you’re at and not worrying about being *good enough.* If we’re continuing to grow as humans, then that means that we know more and more about things, and how to talk about them, every single day. So, we can sit there and bash others for their (or our) uneducated vernacular, or for their level of knowledge on a subject, or we can judge them for not being up to par with where they should be given their age or their place in life…or, we can learn to accept that we’re all on a path, that we are all imperfect, and all seeking to simply grow together.
Now that we’ve reached the end of my post, it’s time to take a moment for some disclaimers. Note that there are exceptions to this approach. I’d expect the fire marshall to be able to be pretty darn accurate regarding methods to put out fires, and I’d expect staff attending a business meeting wouldn’t simply blurt out every single thought that comes to mind. But on a broader level, we could all stand to check our judgments at the door, for ourselves and others. By recognizing my own actions that lead toward self criticism, and disturbing those conditioned thought patterns, I know that I feel lighter, like I’m relaxing into a sauna of acceptance that relieves me of my tightened nerves and apprehension. Until the next time I let some judgments slip through, that is. Your mileage may vary, but give it a shot.