An analogy between drum practice and a career

Five weeks ago, on day 1539 of learning Bleed, I doubled my efforts in drum playing from 15 minutes per day to 30 minutes per day. Up until the 9th of October, it felt as if I had almost stagnated for about 6-9 months. It is very nice to see the results now and wow, what a difference it made to increase the efforts. For the past 36 days I have finally felt steady progress again. I suspect that after 4-5 years of daily practice I had reached a skill level on the drums where 15 minutes just isn’t enough to advance anymore. It’s an interesting observation because I have seen similar patterns in my professional life.

Diary, PhilosophyRikard ÖqvistNovember 15, 2023focus, skill, practice, habits, career, drums, acousticsComment

What’s the point?

My life for the past ten years has been an intense ride. Starting a family and changing the direction of your career has a steep price on the sleep account, among other things. The past week, however, one thing has been stuck in my head. If you never have time to hang out with friends or family, what’s the point?

Diary, ComputerRikard ÖqvistAugust 14, 2023friendship, retro computers, family, career, lifeComment

There is no work-life balance

About ten years ago, I was the lead guitar player in a successful metal band called Meadows End. Playing on that level, including international tours, was something I had dreamt about since I was a little kid. A couple of thousand hours of hard work later I finally achieved my goal. The joy was unfortunately cut short. After only two albums, my life hit a fork in the road. I was writing my PhD thesis at the same time and had been under heavy stress for a long time. After many long conversations with my wife, and mental gymnastics on how to make it work even though it meant placing three suitcases (career, family and the band) in a baggage compartment that had room for two, I finally realized that I had to let go of one of them. That was the hardest decision of my life.

Engineering, Diary, Acoustics, ParentingRikard ÖqvistJanuary 24, 2023family, career, goals, teaching, music, bim, civil engineeringComment

Work as hard as you can on one thing and see what happens

Yesterday me and my wife listened to Dr Jordan Peterson’s lecture in Stockholm, with the same topic as the title of this blog post. As a person who is extremely high in openness, I find this especially interesting. People with this personality trait, creative people, can often have a problem that they keep shifting from one thing to the next without ever finishing anything. I can recognize myself in this to a certain degree. But I also know that I am not too extreme in this regard either. Raphael, a friend of mine might very well be the most creative person I have met. And he told me something that is probably only is visible to someone in the 99,9th percentile in creativity (i.e. way higher than me, even if I should be in the 99th percentile…). “Rikard, you are an artist, but you are also very practical.”

Education, Acoustics, EngineeringRikard ÖqvistJune 6, 2022teaching, focus, career, art, music, universityComment

Career or Kids?

Tonight, when I was reading our daily bed-time story to my three-year-old son, my eyes teared up with joy. It is without a doubt the best part of my whole day and I am so grateful and blessed to have this daily routine. You have little kids for four years and then it’s GONE, never to return. And you miss it at your own peril because it is the literal definition of “peak life”.

ParentingRikard ÖqvistMarch 7, 2022family, career, work, passion, loveComment