| | | Hey Friend,
Your ability to play guitar is directly affected by your beliefs.
Think about that statement for a minute or two. It sounds a bit obvious doesn't it, but is it?
Anyone can pick a guitar up and strum the strings, but that doesn't really count as playing. I think you'll agree that "playing" requires some level of mastery, even if that means simply learning the basics.
Everyone that decides to learn guitar has the same idea that they will be able to play guitar like their favorite guitarist one day, but sadly, most never get past a lesson or two. And I say again, they quit because of their beliefs.
Here's where I throw in the twist - the belief that caused their inability to learn guitar was formed long before they every had the notion to pick up a guitar. Something happened in their past that set the stage for them to quit guitar - in fact, to quit a lot of things in their lives.
I'm currently reading a book by Tony Robbins called Re-awaken the Giant Within (get it free here). According to Tony, everything we believe and do is governed by either the pursuit of pleasure or the avoidance of pain. Each belief we have was formed by one of those two actions - wanting to feel better or trying to relieve some pain we were feeling.
The problem is, the source of the belief can actually entail both pain avoidance and pleasure seeking.
When I was little, I took violin lessons. I lasted about two years, after which I had to tell my instructor I was quitting. Not my parents... me. Why? Because I didn't practice like I was expected to. My parents weren't going to pay for lessons when I wasn't doing the work.
Why didn't I practice? The "pain" of practice was something I avoided whenever I could. On the other side of it, whenever I was practicing, I could hear the other kids outside playing, which is where I wanted to be. So there was the pain of being stuck inside missing out on all the fun. That put the final nail in my violin playing career.
I had beliefs formed that practice (work) was painful and just about anything else was more fun to do.
Perhaps the pain of having to tell my violin teacher that I was quitting is what prevented me from quitting guitar...
We get that a lot in our culture - we associate work with doing things that are unpleasant because most of us get to spend our days at a job we don't get any real satisfaction from. And we continue to endure that pain because there are greater pains we're avoiding - things like starvation and homelessness.
What do you believe about your ability to play guitar?
Because we're still having a conversation here, I'm going to make a pretty good assumption that somewhere in your past, you formed a set of beliefs that keep you coming back to your guitar and working at improving your skills. Even when it's hard (which is most of the time!).
Clearly, you get more pleasure from playing guitar than you do pain, and this strengthens your belief that you will continue to improve. What's great is, that belief will carry you through the when you feel like you're not making progress.
- When that happens, we have a tendency to put ourselves down when we aren't improving. Rather than dwelling on why we seem to be stuck, or knocking ourselves with thoughts and comments like "I'll never learn this" or "why am I so bad at this," take a step back and ask yourself some different questions. For example:
- What's causing the challenge?
- Is it a technical, physical or mental challenge?
- Why am I struggling with this?
- Is there a different approach to achieving the result I want?
- Is there someone who can help me?
Asking yourself better questions like this can be enough to pull you out of a slump because they get you to focus on possible solutions instead of on the problem. New questions also help you strengthen the positive belief you already have.
As you've probably heard, the secret to success is "get started and don't quit." When you have a belief in place that supports that mindset, there's a good likelihood you'll keep going despite the challenges that come up.
Fortunately, you're still here, so you must have a good foundation!
Clearly, there's a lot more to guitar playing success, but simply keeping the belief that you can do it will help pull you through the inevitable low points in your guitar playing career. Remember The Little Train That Could...
I think I can...
I think I can...
I think I can...
Peace ~
Dave |
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