Practicing an instrument and performing live events is what the musician is doing for a living. We can call it work, right? Training, practice session, gig, if you will! 😉
Worrying is a major obstruction to peak performance. Feeling concern harms resting, re-charging and detachment from work.
The more one worries about practice, performance, deadlines, events or other subjects, the more one feels the need to work more and rest less.
Mental disengagement is increasingly harder to take place when feelings of insecurity, incapability or lack of preparation appear. Forcing things seems to be the only way out: practice more, work harder and stay up late.
The problem is that the vicious circle aggravates towards exhaustion unless properly addressed. So, why do we worry and how can we start Letting Go… The World Of Make Believe?
Time pressure creates tension, concern and worries that undermine your work and performance. The more lack of time is felt the less you pace yourself. The constant state of alertness sucks the life out of you and you start obsessing on getting things done.
First things first: Address your worries once and for all.
Is there any unfinished business going on, any dishes to wash or dirty clothes to clean up? Do it. Put it behind your back and move on. Take care of your groceries, your appointments, your to-do lists and get some Headspace by closing all the nagging open loops ruminating in circles round your head.
Closing loops is identical in any kind of circumstance, especially when practicing or performing in a musical situation. What are your worries? What’s really troubling you and being avoided? Are you fiddling about your technique? Do you feel you’re not able to build speed? Is it your lesser creativity on improvising that is bugging you? Is it the sound of your pick, your comping style, your melodic interpretation or your harmonic comprehension of a tune?
Worries start knocking on your door whenever you feel like having an unfinished business working against you. The trick is to outline a strategy to address those insecurities, diving deep outside your comfort zone and coming back stronger than ever.
The goal of practicing is actually addressing your focus and attention towards fundamental musical aspects of your choice. And performance is the stage where you reveal those choices.
Journaling is an effective way to address your issues.
- Keep notice of any worrying thought that comes to mind;
- Schedule a working session to address your musical, technical or interpretative issue that is bothering you;
- Work on it.
You may realise that after addressing your worries you’ll be able to relax and let go, consequently disengaging effectively from labor duties. Subsequently, you step back from overload and burnout having more time to replenish, stay creative, motivated and fulfilled.
So, take the opportunity to vent all your worries right now by sharing them in the comment section bellow. Take off that weight and let’s talk.
