I wake up at 8:12. I check my phone and I see a long message from my friend:

It's not easy. How can you say it's easy man? I've been practicing for five years and it's not easy at all!!

He saw my short video on Sunday where I managed to play one little song on the piano following a tutorial…

because week 32 of 53skills.com was learning to play 1 song on the piano.

Here's where it gets interesting and what's valuable for you:

When you decide to try new things, sometimes people will criticize you.

They will ask you questions, they will push back. They might not be supportive and it can even come from friends or family.

For some people it's painful to see you do cool new things that make your life more beautiful and they don't

so they might try to pull you down.

Now this was not the case with my friend. He's a great guy.

He even apologized after because what happened is he identified with his skill.

I want you to pay attention to this, to what they DO.

If you take that away from people their work or hobby identity they get very defensive.

If he spends 5 years practicing the piano and I do it for 7 days and I claim I can play one song, that made him feel less valued.

I think it's an easy mistake that many of us can fall into:

So the lesson from this skill, skill 32, playing the piano, is not even about music.

I want you to just try out more fun things and not care about your identity, what people say about you, or competence.

If they say after one week that you're not good enough, if they say you're mediocre, it just doesn't matter.

All that matters is that you try and you have fun. You do things and you do them badly and that's okay.

Everyone has their opinions but I want you to not have opinions. I want you to do things. I want you to have proof that you tried.

Indeed my friend is right.

Playing the piano is actually very hard. It's harder than the guitar. It is also much more beautiful but playing one song by following the tutorial in one week, it's actually very doable.

Do not be intimidated by this instrument. You can totally do it!

BONUS: Part 2.

Now for week 33 I did something more dangerous. I got myself nunchucks, a weapon that is both dangerous for your opponent and for yourself if you don't know what you're doing.

Fun fact: I hit myself in the eye and in the… lower male parts.

Why should you care about Nunchakus? You might ask. Because it's fun and it's cool and it can even be useful as a self-defense weapon.

It's small and compact. You can practice it for fun but you also have something to defend yourself.

Funny enough I think it's a great thing to have fun also for ladies.

And the true inspiration here and the lesson came from a legend…

called the Taxista Samurai!

a taxi guy from Brazil who went viral on national television because he was showing videos of him practicing the nunchaku.

He's like an old guy, around 70 years old, yet he had the courage to try that out and actually is decent at it and is fun to watch and he has great energy.

Again lesson number 2 is that it doesn't matter if other people judge you.

It doesn't matter their opinion and it also doesn't matter the age.

Just go out there and do things that you think are interesting and enjoyable. Do them badly and show it to people. Bring that energy forward:

Again and again through the 53skills.com project the idea is that life is not what you think.

Life is what you do!

If you missed the previous weeks and lessons, check them out HERE:

Share with friends who want to make their lives more beautiful.

- Alex