Trial and Error
Lessons learned by others may not be meant for you
The things that other’s learn about themselves through trial and error don’t directly translate to life of anyone except that person. The specific circumstances of their life in the moment they realized the lesson are so unique that they cannot easily be recreated or expected to have the same effect in your life. They can still be useful to you but beware direct emulation of others or relying too strongly on the specific statements of how they see their own lessons.
The mind is on high alert searching for ways to help you achieve your goals. If it hears about a positive outcome someone else has attained, it immediately begins to wonder, “how can I achieve the same?” The mind will also want to watch out for strategies to avoid negative outcomes which happen to others. It’s a natural reaction but it has it’s limitations and can lead to behavior that will set you back rather than propel toward a desired state.
When you discover how someone achieved something you want, treat it more like a general direction than a detailed map. We must do our own exploration around the thing in order to achieve desired the outcomes.
There is also a danger in being caught up in a particular cycle of people watching and emulating. One can easily get caught up searching for a long list of people who have achieved our desired and get lost digging into the details of how they did it.
Consider a musical artist starting out. They know they like the sound of a certain artist so they start digging into that artist’s setup. What kind of instruments do they use? How do they write their songs? Where did they first start recording music. These trivia are all very interesting (or at least to me I love learning stuff like that), but they aren’t very helpful to artist. In fact, it is more likely that you should try to make a sound similar to the one you live using what you already have before going and recreating their setup exactly. Exploring on your own is exactly what you need to learn as an artist (assuming you have a very basic proficiency in your instruments. Virtuosity not required).
Each time you make a bad sound or something you don’t like you will learn, at a minimum, how not make sounds you like. That should be counted as progress! More likely you will start learning how to make sounds you actually like. This doesn’t mean that you have to complete abstain from looking for references or guides. However, the activity of learning the trivial of an accomplishment is addicting and like a whirlpool can trap you spinning and prevent you from sailing on to your desired destination.
This of course is not just applicable to music making but also to any creative endeavor like creating a business, learning to bake delicious bread with an excellent crust, or writing (especially writing).
Often we seek to understand the experience and paths of others so as to gain insight into how to achieve similar outcomes. However, it is almost by definition impossible for anyone to take the same life path as someone else. Not only did they take actions in a past (which I have heard is very challenging to reach from the present) but also two people have too many unique circumstances that differ for anyone to expect the same outcome for the same action taken.
That’s not to say we can’t learn something! Rather the lessons we can learn from observing and learning about the actions and life paths of others ought to be treated as high level guidance not as tactics to be employed directly. They can help us getting a heading in our own journey like spotting the north star. They are not a map which can be followed and should not be treated as such.