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5 suggestions for establishing ritual

 

In my last post I talked about using a mind map. If you got a chance to work with it, chances are you’ve got a set of goals and a realistic timeline for completing them. Here are some ideas for having some success.

1. Buy a notebook. Before you go to bed, think about when you have free time the next day. Write in the notebook the specific time that you’ll pick up your guitar, and for how long. For instance, you can write, “ I will pick up my guitar at 1pm tomorrow for 2 minutes.”

Don’t commit to doing anything. Something will happen. It’s the act of picking it up that is most difficult. Once you have it in your hands, it’s usually there

for 10 or 15 minutes even if you only committed to two. It might only be there for two. Doesn’t matter. Success is picking it up every day.

2. Buy an egg timer. After you’ve established a ritual of picking up the instrument, set the timer for 15 minutes. Don’t play past the 15 minutes. You don’t want to run the risk of taking time from other areas of your life that need it. If that happens, you’ll start to view the guitar negatively. If you have more time and your guitar playing isn’t imposing on other priorities, great. Play more if you want.

3. Use visualization. Researchers found that people who engaged in visualizations that included the process of what needed to be done to achieve the goal (ex: fantasizing about learning another language, by visualizing themselves practicing every day after work) were more likely to stay consistent than their peers that visualized themselves speaking French on a trip to Paris. The visualization process worked for two reasons:

  • Planning: visualizing the process helped focus attention on the steps needed to reach the goal.
  • Emotion: visualization of individual steps led to reduced anxiety.

4. Identify resistance. There will come a time when you will be tempted to give up.  When this happens, try to identify what is making this happen. Incorporate an “if-then” scenario once you find the culprit. For instance, if fatigue is stopping you from playing guitar after work, you could set up a system of “If I’m feeling tired after work, then I will take a 20-minute nap and listen to music for five minutes to get myself motivated.” Or leave the guitar out of the case, and make sure it’s in a room where you’ll have privacy. It can be something that simple (not having to open the case) than gets you to pick up the guitar.

5. Creating habits is easier when we make use of our current routines.  Pick a regular part of your schedule and then build guitar playing into it. For instance, instead of “I will play the guitar,” you could say, “When I come home, I’ll have a shower and then play the guitar.” This helps because you use cues from an established routine instead of willpower.

Fifteen minutes a day, patience, and some encouragement once in a while, and you can accomplish what you want.

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Use a mind map to make a ritual

Can you establish a ritual of picking up your guitar every day? You’ll need a good reason before you do. What’s the long-term goal aside from knowing a few songs?

Get a piece of paper. We’re going to do some mind-mapping. It’ll only take 5 or 10 minutes. Unless you get into it, in which case it could take a while…

Mind-mapping was developed in the 1970s as a whole brain alternative to linear thinking. It’s essentially a keyword technique.  The idea is to write down a central theme, and then use lines growing out of that central theme to depict your thoughts and associations.

This is not about categories. It’s about whatever is in the mind.

What I’ve got below is a template: a broad category and then stuff coming from it. You absolutely cannot censor yourself when you do this. Judgement is never fun, and this should be fun. You can eliminate stuff later. Dream big right now.

A mind map recipe.

  1. Use “music” as the central theme.
  2. Then use “guitar” as one of the first thoughts coming from that.
  3. Use things that you discover in the music theme that relate to guitar. These will likely be things you haven’t thought of before.
  4. Fill in the squares surrounding the guitar circle. Add squares if you want.
  5. Fill in the empty circles surrounding the music square.
  6. Fill in the boxes surrounding those circles. Again add squares as required

Remember. Don’t censor yourself.

mind map

 

Now you’ve got some ideas for what you want to do. Don’t get rid of anything. Which do you think are most realistic to start with? “Play like Eric Clapton” is possible, but won’t happen right away. Do you know what you need to know in order to do that?

“Learn my favorite song” is possible sooner depending on how hard it is. “Learn a few chords” is easier than both of those.  “Play with other people” is something that could happen as soon as you know a few chords, or after you learn a few song (these are just examples; none of them need to be on your mind map if they don’t feel right to you).

Make a list of all this stuff.

 Teachers are useful

Now find a good teacher. Show her/him the list, and create a learning strategy together. What do you start with? At what point do you start working on playing like Eric Clapton?

Figure out a sequence of learning and a loose timeline for when you might be able to accomplish your goals. Base those goals on 15 minutes, 6 days a week. Be realistic. If you’re not realistic, you’ll get discouraged. If you get discouraged, there’s more likelihood that you’ll quit. I don’t want you to quit.

You don’t have to keep going back for lessons if you don’t want to. You can develop the plan with a teacher, and then go home and work it. When you run into a problem, go for another lesson.

Be aware that some teachers don’t want to teach this way. Many require a monthly cheque for 4 lessons. This is reasonable if teaching is their sole means of income. Others teach part-time and are more flexible, so make sure you let whoever you talk to know up front what you’re looking for. Teachers are great for encouragement, and for giving you a sense of how you’re developing. Use them wisely and according to your budget.

For more techniques on idea generation, check out Michael Michalko’s excellent book, Cracking Creativity: The Secrets of Creative Genius.

 

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Guitar ritual

Before you do anything else, you have to do what you can to establish a habit of picking up your guitar. You have to do this if you want to get better. Without doing this, you’ll quit. Seems obvious. Without a habit of doing the activity, you stop doing the activity. Or you do it haphazardly, don’t get better, and then assume (wrongly) that you don’t have what it takes.

All it takes is the habit of doing it. You’ll get better. It’s just the way it works. This is really important, so I’ve dedicated the next 3 posts to the topic.

Consciousness

Research has shown that the majority of our activities are not consciously directed. As much as 95% of what we do occurs automatically or in response to external stimuli. With that in mind, it’s a good idea to create automatic behaviours that get us what we want instead of going through our days doing things without consciously establishing what those things are.

This where ritual comes in.  Defined as a detailed method of procedure faithfully or regularly followed, ritual allows for success. A ritual might seem too rigid for you, but think about it. You already have rituals in place for things that you think are important. Family dinners, an exercise program, personal hygiene, whatever. There are almost certainly actions in your work life that you have established that enable you to get work done as effectively as possible.

Think about the things you do every day. Which are the ones that you repeat? Where in your life are you most successful? Family? Work? Health? In most cases, where you find success, you’ll find ritual.

Next post: using a mind map to decide what to base your rituals on.

 

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