This post is a hard one to categorise, it's a bit of marketing, a bit of motivation with a touch of creative thinking and perseverance thrown in. There is also an innovation (for me) which you will find if you read through to the end.

Let's start with motivation, goals and creativity - and a subtle sales pitch.

In my "Achieving Goals" book about "How to use Marathon Runners Secrets for Business Goals" (Kindle eBook version on sale for $2.99) I wrote how I was a hopeless athlete at school. Too slow for track events, too clumsy for high or long jump and downright dangerous throwing the javelin, shot put or discus. I did marginally better at longer distances and cross-country. In the 60's when I started High School in Rhodesia, attendance at school sports was compulsory. Unless a genuine note from a doctor could be produced, the penalty for missing a practice was three strokes of the cane. (6 strokes for getting caught presenting a forged note.)

The punishment was sufficient motivation for me to turn out for athletics, rugby and cricket practice depending on the season and to make rare appearances for the school team as a poor substitute if there was a shortage of better players.

My sporting ambitions were all focused on the back of a horse. I was fortunate that I was given my first horse (and the responsibility of caring for it) at the tender age of seven. I was also fortunate that all my sluggish clumsiness on the athletic field disappeared and I became recklessly fearless on horseback. The introduction to equine sports at an early age led to years of great experiences, but that is a story for another time.

That is why running my first marathon and then a series of longer, ultra marathons in my late 30's and 40's were huge challenges and became the Big Hairy Audacious Goals that self-help and personal development experts love to talk about.

Another skill I lacked and was seriously mocked for at school was any trace of musical or singing ability. After a few singing classes in junior school, I was told that a) I was tone-deaf and b)  my out-of-tune croaking was upsetting the natural harmony of the rest of the class. I was banned from taking part in any further singing or music classes and told to sit in the corner and read a book. That effectively ended any chance of a music career before it started. This was before the days of political correctness and the unfortunate modern practice of rewarding mediocre or worse, non-performance.  I believe our generation of Baby Boomers is better for it.

My lack of musical ability was strange in that my late father had played in a military band before I was born and could pick up a guitar, a wind instrument or sit at a piano and in minutes play a recognisable tune by ear. I was shocked to hear him play the Beatles' "Yesterday". The ability skipped a generation with me and went instead to my elder son who has the same ability to very quickly learn how to produce a tune from an instrument.

Having got the running bug out of my system by achieving all the goals and more that I set out to do, it has long been a goal to learn to play a musical instrument. This is partly a desire to learn a new skill, partly in the hope that it will help me become more creative in my writing and marketing, partly as yet another defence against Alzheimer's disease. Most of all, short of attempting to swim across Lake Erie, (I am a weak swimmer) it is one of the most difficult challenges I can think of. I have to overcome 50+ years of living with the knowledge that I have no musical talent what so ever.

Because I know so little about music, choosing a musical instrument or even how to go about learning to play one, I thought I would start with a used one. On the way back from a dental appointment today, I remembered that an acquaintance was now working at a large antique / used goods centre and that he might be able to advise me.

Here is the marketing bit.