Subject: Distraction - the Silent Killer of Friend's Guitar Goals
You are getting this e-mail because you subscribed to it on www.learn-to-play-rock-guitar.com. If you don't want to receive these e-mails any longer, go to the bottom of this message and click on "unsubscribe." Hey there Friend, Distraction is one of the biggest killers of our age. It kills our ability to focus, it kills our productivity, it kills our goals and dreams. In fact, distraction is a leading cause of preventable deaths in my opinion (can you say "texting while driving?"). I don't have any statistics, but hear me out.How many times have you sat down with guitar and metronome in hand to do a scale or rhythm practice session and found yourself instead goofing off, playing riffs from your favorite song? Or you have a specific strum pattern you need to learn for a song you're playing at a friend's wedding in a few weeks - you've hunted down a tutorial on Youtube, but before you know it you're watching some "Twilight" bad lip reading video? (No, I'm not going to give you the link - I don't want to enable your distraction. It's bad enough I got sucked in!) Distraction is also a huge contributor to the feeling of overwhelm we can sometimes experience. We're constantly changing direction with our focus, and it begins to feel like we're never going to get anything done. Unfortunately, we most likely won't get anything done well, even if we happen to "finish" it. It's really frustrating because there are so many things we want to take part in. We continually add more to our plate thinking we can handle it - we'll fit it in our schedule somewhere, right? But unless you have the ability to either clone yourself or delegate some of your work, you're only one person and can only efficiently do one thing at a time. Applied to guitar, there's so many techniques we need to work on to reach a level of proficiency:
Distraction is the main cause of our inability to remain on task . We have too many things constantly grabbing for our attention - texts and phone calls, email and urgent priorities (usually someone else's priority), special offers, funny videos, work interruptions, and the list goes on. With all these preoccupations, we have a difficult time staying focused on the task we're supposed to be doing. Our biggest challenge is to actually finish something during the day. Just one thing! Part of the problem is we've all been told multi-tasking is this great technique to get lots of tasks done at the same time. I have often said I can do one thing at a time well, but the operative word here is well. Start giving me two or more tasks to do at once and you're going to get less than optimal results. And yet, even though I know this, I still find myself trying to work on half a dozen projects at once. Do you have the same problem? I think it comes down to this - we feel like we're going to miss out on opportunities if we don't say "yes" to everyone who asks for something, or we don't stay glued to all the communication mediums. So we're never fully engaged in the activity we need to be doing at this particular time. And by activity, I mean anything that should have our undivided attention - practicing guitar, enjoying dinner with the family, driving, working, heck, even bathing! In actuality, the most productive people (the ones that really produce results) make a habit of focusing on one item at a time. This could be an individual task in a project, or it could be a daily routine maintenance job, or to could be simply watching TV with their family. By focusing on one thing at a time, they can be fully engaged in the moment and truly enjoy what it is they're doing. And there's no guilt that they're going to miss out on something, because they're focused on what is important now. If you follow this methodology, I think what you'll find, especially with guitar playing, is that you will begin to see exponential improvement in your playing. As you focus on one technique at a time, you will quickly build speed and accuracy. One skill will build on another and as you integrate two skills, it will make it easier to add a third technique to your guitar playing tool box. There's a very simple solution to the problem of distraction. Here are the steps to eliminate distraction and start accomplishing more in your guitar playing and life.
Peace~ Dave Dave "Eddie" Vance is a rock guitar enthusiast and gear nut. He has been playing guitar for over 30 years and enjoys tormenting the neighbors every chance he gets. When he's not slaving for the man, you can find him rocking out with his B.C. Rich Bich guitar, a cold beer and some sweet tunes. He also runs Learn-To-Play-Rock-Guitar.com, but you knew that already! Follow Learn To Play Rock Guitar:I welcome your feedback! Did you like today's message? What other topics would you like to see covered in my e-mails? Please let me know at: dave@learn-to-play-rock-guitar.com As always, please feel free to forward this email to a friend! I review products before recommending them. If you buy a product based on my recommendation, I will receive a commission. However, my emails also contain links that don’t require any investment on your part and are jam-packed with "juicy, guitar learnin' tastiness". We don't rent or share your name with anybody. Feel free to forward this issue to any friends you think would enjoy its contents. They will thank you. So will I.
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