Believing Is Half the Battle

“I can’t, so I won’t.” You wouldn’t believe how often I’ve heard something along those lines. In my years as a music teacher in middle school I used to hear it on a regular basis. But what is a person doing when they say that? They’re really saying “I can’t, so I won’t. I won’t so I can’t.” It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. All it fosters is a defeatist attitude. But what if you actually tried? You might actually succeed and learn something. Think about it. The feeling of success. That’s something you might experience if you actually gave it a shot.

Another version of the same sentence is “I could never play like that.” But what you’re doing there is defining your future self by what you are now. You ensure that you won’t ever be able to play like that. It’s not how good you are, it’s how good you want to be.  That’s all that matters really. You need to want it, and then set about doing it, all the while believing that you can succeed, or not thinking about that part at all. Actually that’s what I’d suggest. Don’t think about it too much, just enjoy the journey. Will you get frustrated? Of course, that’s normal and a part of learning. 

If you find this kind of content helpful, I’d urge you to consider my Guitar Academy, where I have a big section on the mental side of practice, and how to practice for maximum results. That’s something that I don’t think I’ve seen in other similar courses. The Academy of course also has all the technical and theoretical stuff.