… it’s about making the time to practice.
If we wait for an opportunity to sit down & pick up our guitars, it can often not ever manifest. I’ve found that the simple act of scheduling practice time, like you would with any other important appointment or event, will result in the practicing actually occurring.
I don’t really know of anyone right now that doesn’t share with me how extremely busy & full their lives are. It is a condition of this world we have created. I love all the resources we have to be productive in this day & age and I strive to look at the high side of things. Yet we often find ourselves overloaded. That is one of the main reasons I created the 99 Decisions Guitar Program. It was a way to offer an approach to learning the guitar that would fit into people’s busy schedules.
The fact is, if you desire to succeed at anything, you are going to have to put the time in that it takes to succeed at that thing. We all know that. But do we understand what that really means?
A basic tenement of time management is that one must manage their time & not be at affect of their world. This involves a certain amount of figuring out just what exactly you have control over in your life.
I often have my clients write out a complete inventory of everything they do in their lives. This is a good way to gain clarity of exactly what you do with your time. Include everything that happens on a regular daily basis and on a weekly basis and on a monthly basis, and you should end up with a accurate representation of how your time is filled. It can be startling to see all your life activities on one page (or many pages). There is something about being clear about everything as opposed to “terminal vagueness”.
The point is, with this new found awareness, you will gain perspective on what you need to do in order to accomplish your goals. You can structure your time in a way you that moves you forward towards what you desire. You’ll start to realize which things you have choice in, and which things you don’t.
There are tons of resources online for you to develop your time management skills. I suggest you explore some of them. It’s a process so remember to give yourself a while to try out & adjust various strategies until you find the approach that works for you.
Please share your experiences in the comments section. Your insights can be beneficial to others as they figure out their own stories.
And, of course…
Don’t forget to add “Read the 99 Decisions blog” to your list of life activities.
1 Comment
Michelle Pokorny
January 14, 2015It’s a common, innate human drive to want to ‘complete’ things. To get the complete set or check all the boxes. For me, simply putting ‘practice guitar’ on my “to do list” for the day increases the likelihood many fold! It helps keep it top of mind, which is a critical element of ‘goal pursuit’…
And putting my guitar somewhere I see, sit by, walk past all the time helps, too. Reality is I can’t make practicing a priority every day, but every day a few minutes will arrive when I get to decide what I’m gonna do… if it’s handy, I am so much more likely to grab the guitar!
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