You can do better than that

You realize how important or talented you are, when someone who has been working and guiding you, tells you straight in the face,

"You can do better than that."

These words were not uttered to me but to my 12 year old daughter from her piano teacher.   She has been teaching piano to my daughter for the last 3 years and is instrumental to my child's development.   I can understand the teacher's frustration with her as 45 minutes of guidance a week is not enough to maximize my daughter's talent.     She needed to practice 30 minutes in the piano every day, because daily regimen is part of the discipline.   My daughter is lazy to play the piano everyday as playing outside or chatting with her friends are more fun.   No amount of my nagging her to practice worked.  If she really wants this, it has to come from within her, and not because of us.

As a matter of fact, my nagging to my husband to quit smoking didn't work too.  But he quit smoking, cold turkey 2 months ago.   The reason - it was getting expensive to maintain it.   When he calculated how much he was spending (the taxes in Canada are really high) on the cancer sticks, he decided he will quit.   Given the tight budget that we have, it made sense not to waste our money on this item.  He quit because he wanted to.

My husband talked to my daughter about the necessity of playing the piano on a regular basis like after coming home from school.   He said that she is very talented and has a gift which no one in our family has.   He was very forthright with her:  to not use or waste the talent is like throwing away a gift someone has given you during your birthday party.   That if she really believes that she has the talent, then by all means use all the opportunity and time to hone it and develop it 100x times.  If your teacher believes in you, then believe in yourself.

"You are better than this. "

My daughter kept quiet for while and told us, "I am going to practice everyday now."  I want to believe that because she wants to,  she will do it.

Has there been someone in your life who believed in you and what you can be?

Picture credit:   http://musicalmelody.tumblr.com/