Regular visitors and those who know me well will know that I’m an avid fan and participant in the game of squash. A sudden flashback to a squash coaching seminar (I’m also a qualified squash coach) brought back an insight worth sharing. At this seminar one of the top UK coaches was talking about “affecting change”, i.e. doing stuff that will make other stuff change, so that you can hit the little black ball more accurately and better.
In the coaching business affecting change is serious biz. Indeed, the only way to change the fact that you’re losing matches is to stop sucking as a player. So, you train better and differently to change what you do and how you do it. The fact you’ve affected change results in better performance.
Musicians, real ones, do it instinctively, by practicing for hours to get something just right. Songwriters, real ones, do it by rewriting and redrafting a song until it’s a beauty. Producers, real ones, give it one more go, just when everyone else has buggered off to the pub.
The problem with a lot of people who call themselves writers, producers and musicians is that they really don’t give a shit about what goes down. Any light relief in the form of YouTube videos or Facebook chat is preferred to actually doing what affects change. It’s as if the thought of being a writer/producer/musician is much more fun than the process of becoming one.
Of course, in sport you get a career if you beat the other guy. It’s different to music, where we get a career if we do what others like.
However, if they aren’t liking what you do, why don’t you take a leaf from the squash coaching book and affect change. Do things differently and better next time. You would agree, would you not, that doing it the same as you did before is not affecting change, it’s not affecting your bank balance (except for the worse) and it’s not getting you anywhere you haven’t already been, which was the reason you came to this website, and others like it, in the first place.
I won’t get any better as a squash player if I just attend seminars and meetings where people who’ve been there and done it talk about how they were there and did it.
At some point I have to start being there and doing it by myself.
So do you. The sooner you start, the sooner things will change.
Finally… sorry I can’t resist sharing my brief moment of glory as the winner of a local tournament… 
With an evil red stare, change was affected… squash is the greatest sport known to man.
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