Why? Because once it gets down to the top fifty or whatever I know everyone can sing, and then it’s just boring.
You see, the thing I love most about watching Idols is watching people who think they can sing but really can’t. I mean really, really can’t! That’s the real entertainment! Not the contestants who know they are awful and are just trying their luck for fun, but rather those people who have “delusions of grandeur” – who genuinely think they have what it takes to win the competition and yet seem to have no clue how bad they really sound.
And I always ask myself, “Who encourages these people to audition?” Either they are deaf, really bad friends, or else just too nice to tell the truth! The other question I ask myself is, “How can these contestants be so deluded? Do they honestly think they can sing??” And then the answer hit me.
We are all deluded to one extent or another.
We all have blind spots. Things in our life we simply cannot see or choose not to acknowledge. We may believe we are kind, generous, helpful, fabulous etc, but if you had to ask the people around us – the people who actually live or work under the same roof as us, perhaps they would have a very different opinion. And what I’ve found in my own life is that it’s always easier to point out other people’s blind spots then it is to recognise my own.
As human beings we have an infinite capacity for self-deception.
So I guess the big the question is “What are your blind spots?” Don’t know? Well, there is only one way to find out:
FEEDBACK.
Just like the Idols contestants get feedback from the judges, so too should we be open to feedback from others. Not just anybody of course, but people who love us, care for us, and who have our best interests at heart. People who are not afraid to speak the truth.
Of course receiving negative feedback is never easy. It hurts to be told you cannot sing when all this time you thought you were rocking. But at the end of the day, if we can learn to receive feedback graciously and humbly we will be better off for it.