When I was a kid, I was just in awe of professional musicians. How do you get up on stage and play song after song and not mess up?

Well, I’m still in awe of professional musicians, but now I understand something fundamental: Most of the time, whatever they’re doing up there is as easy as driving around town or carrying on a conversation.

It takes a degree of effort and concentration, but it’s within the range of routine activities. They’re not pushing themselves so hard that they’re risking a train wreck in front of hundreds or thousands of people. They’re doing something that they can already reliably do.

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As a young, aspiring singer/songwriter, I dreamed of creating something incredible.

Inspired by The Beatles, Chuck Berry, Smokey Robinson, and Bob Dylan — in other words, world-class, genre-defining, generational talents — I thought about where my music would fit in the pantheon of the greats.

In my “planning,” I completely skipped over the part where I would write, perform, and promote my music, connecting with potential partners and fans one by one, building a career the way everyone has to build a career: day by day.

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Years ago, my sister tricked her kids into eating broccoli by passionately pleading, “Please don’t eat my trees!”

They gleefully stuffed vegetables into their mouths while she wailed, “Noooo! Where will all the birds live?”

At a family dinner recently, I tried this on another nephew, age three, who was reluctant to continue his meal when there were so many other interesting things to do. I’m pleased to report that it worked instantly and repeatedly. He got that look on his face like, “Oh, we’re playing a game here,” and joined me in the improv comedy, eating all the food on his plate.

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When a kid cleans her room, she may use some unorthodox tidying tactics.

Theoretically, everything should find a home where it is grouped with like items. However, there isn’t always time and energy for that. Shoving everything into drawers and closets, while hasty and perfunctory, is actually a good start. At least the room looks tidy. The details can be addressed later.

There are many situations in school, work, and life where we get stuck because we want to to do things well. We might spend hours, days, or even years trying to summon the energy to approach our task the right way. In the meantime, the deed remains undone. If we give ourselves permission to take the easy way out — to do the work badly or take shortcuts — we may actually accomplish what we set out to do.

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