Years ago I remembering hearing John Mayer talk about how he moved to Atlanta as a very young man to make it as a musician and he just locked himself away in a closet to really master the guitar. Not sure if this is true or whether it was literally a closet but I think the idea of just choosing a learning goal and then pushing out all distractions and placing yourself in a tunnel you don’t get out of until you’ve reached your goal is important. It’s sometimes necessary to do this to actually make progress. But it’s also really hard and few have the discipline or endurance.

I was listening to one of his old songs and it somewhat reminded me of this idea. I have no idea what the lyrics really meant to him when he wrote them. It could be something totally different and that’s okay. This is just my interpretation of it:

Talk is really easy
Making things happen is hard
Making things happen requires you go really deep on that thing
Making things happen requires you lock yourself away
Making things happen requires you shed part of the old you
Making things happen requires you go numb for a bit
Numb to exits to the tunnel
Numb to distractions
This is the New Deep

Actual lyric from song:

Full song: