The Mind Over Finger Podcast - 149 The Delightful Ten: How to Start Practicing When You Don't Feel Like It!

Episode Date: November 4, 2022

A technique to help you get started when you're not in the mood to practice.   Reflection - Here are questions to increase your awareness of the topics I cover in the episode: What would make this process enjoyable for me? How can I make this session productive and interesting for me? What would make this session more pleasant?   >> DOWNLOAD THE TRANSCRIPT FROM THIS EPISODE HERE

You're listening to the Mind Over Finger Podcast, episode number 149. Welcome to the Mind Over Finger Podcast, discussions on mindful music making, efficient practice, optimal performance, and building a purposeful life and fulfilling career. I'm your host, violinist and certified performance and life coach for musicians, Dr. René-Paul Gaultier. Hi, everyone. Thank you for pushing play. I hope you're having an amazing day wherever you are. I have a very fun episode for you today. I'm going to be sharing one of my favorite hacks to get myself, if not motivated, at least started to practice when I don't feel like it.

But before, I want to share a few words about what's coming up for you on the podcast in November and December. If you know me by now, you know that I think joy is one of the most powerful emotions in unlocking all sorts of wonderful things, not only when it comes to practicing or performing, but also, of course, in our life. And one of my participants in the Music Mastery Experience started a conversation that created a spark of an idea in my head and made me think of those easy, joy-centered strategies we can use to help us on our musical journey. So we're going to have November be the month of joy, where I'm going to cover two strategies I love to use and one I just discovered, thanks to my MME participant, and that I want to share with you. And this is going to be

followed by a series of episodes in December, where I'm going to bring you the coaching tool that has changed and continues to change my life as well as the lives of my clients. I hope you're excited. I have two incredible months ahead for you. And I want to mention one other thing to you before I dive into this month's first tip. I don't share anything on the podcast that I have not embodied myself. Mind Over Finger to me is all about being the work. Everything I share with you and teach, those are the tools I've used myself to win auditions, to win competitions, to perform at my best consistently, to enjoy music making, to change my life. And those are the tools my clients are using to create incredible things in their lives. And believe me, if we can do it, you can

do it too. If those things sound good to you, performing at your best, enjoying your musical journey, perhaps winning an audition, or simply improving your skills, I want to invite you to join us in practicing for peak performance. This is my tried and true blueprint to reaching optimal performance. In practicing for peak performance, you're going to get step-by-step guidance on everything from how to plan to how to practice, how to overcome performance anxiety, and how to prepare yourself for the kind of performance you've been wanting to experience. I'll say it again. Those are the tools that have worked for me and now work for my clients time and time again. And it's way more than tips and tricks. It's a whole new way of thinking that's going to unleash

your abilities to perform at your best. So head over to mindoverfinger.com right now and join us inside Practicing for Peak Performance today to get your proven roadmap to feeling confident in performance. You can experience clarity about your process today. Again, that's at mindoverfinger.com. I can't wait to see you inside. Okay, let's talk about what you can do to get started when you don't feel motivated to practice. Because let's face it, oftentimes, one of the hardest things about practicing is to actually just start. Sometimes we're tired, we had a long day, but other times, lack of motivation or procrastination can be the signs of something that's rooted deeper. It can come from a fear of failure, a feeling of inadequacy, or a discouragement

just thinking about the amount of work ahead, right? Like any discipline, playing an instrument is a deeply personal experience. At the root of it all is usually a deep love for music. And after years of hard work, of discipline, of sacrifices, it becomes an intrinsic part of who we are. So when things don't feel great, it rattles us at the personal level. And I don't know if it's this way for you, but it happens so often that just looking at my case makes me stressed out. Just looking at it. That little violin just resting innocently there in the case, it becomes a feared object because it embodies a large panoply of frustrations and insecurities. But the funny thing is, once I unleash the monster from its cage, things usually end up not being so

bad at all. Once the beast is out and it has been cajoled for a while, it starts to show its tamer side. Now, what works really well for me to get myself to open the case and take the thing out, and I hope you try it this week, is what I call the technique of the delightful 10. I've talked about this before in my joyful practice challenges. So you can check out those episodes. And it's a little bit related to the idea of paying yourself first that I presented in episode 147. So make sure to catch that episode as well. What the delightful 10 is, in a nutshell, is the idea that if you had planned to practice, but you don't feel like it, commit to taking the instrument out and play anything that you want for only 10 minutes. Play something that delights you. Anything that

would be just for you. That'd be fun and enjoyable. Then after 10 minutes, you give yourself the permission to walk away without judgment. Sounds doable, right? What this approach does is to get the ball rolling. It creates momentum. So maybe you don't feel like locking yourself in the practice room for three hours. You feel overwhelmed just thinking about it. Maybe you're not in the mood for a whole bunch of exercises of scales and etudes followed by endless practice drills of difficult repertoire jam-packed with details. I get it. I've been there and I'm still there many days. So when you feel this way, commit to open the case, take the instrument out or sit at the keyboard and play something, anything for 10 minutes. And the operative word here is play.

think playful think delightful make it feel as delicious as possible and only 10 minutes and all of this with the knowledge that after that you're free to do what you want without judgment walk away or keep playing as you see fit i think 10 minutes is manageable right especially if you give yourself permission to play anything you would like. One caveat though, please do keep in mind that you don't want to injure yourself by launching into something too demanding without a proper warm-up. So what happens for me when I give myself this gift of the delightful 10 is that I'm usually successful at fooling myself into practicing a lot more. I usually end up doing what I had originally intended to do. For a million reasons, including the ones I just mentioned,

it's sometimes so daunting to even think about practicing. So I'm going to commit to 10 minutes. I will commit to walk to my office, open the case, razz in my bow, take out my violin, and play for 10 minutes. Anything. A few long tones, a fiddle tune, some Bach, anything. No strings attached and no pun intended. I play exactly what I want at exactly the tempo that I want. I try to feel as comfortable as I possibly can, aiming for super good posture. I try to get the most beautiful, most self-indulging, delicious sound I can out of the instrument. I'll repeat a note, a string crossing, a bow change, or a shift 10 times if I feel like it. It doesn't matter. I just try to make it feel like a huge treat.

And somehow doing that, playing a few notes without any expectations, any pressure shifts my whole perspective. It reconnects me to my joy of playing and my purpose. My curiosity and my inner drive start to kick in and with baby steps, sometimes even without noticing it, I move on to other exercises. And next thing I know, I've started quote unquote practicing. It's like jumping in a cold pool on a hot summer day. It can feel a little daunting at first, but once you're in the water, you just want to stay there. The beast that was just sitting in the case a few minutes ago has become my friend again. So I hope you give this a shot this week.

commit to 10 minutes, pick up your instrument or sit at the keyboard and treat yourself to 10 minutes of pure delight on your instrument. Then decide to keep practicing or walk away without any judgment. And to this, you can also add a layer that I've already mentioned in some past episodes, which is to find ways that will make practicing feel like an ongoing treat for you. Figure out what those are by asking yourself those powerful questions. What would make this process enjoyable for me? How can I make this session productive and interesting for me? What would make this session more pleasant? And if you want more joy and more tips on how to make the process more pleasant. I've had three joyful practice challenges over the past three

years. And you can catch the two episodes on that topic, where I share the challenges and the insight that came out of it. And I'll have those links in the show notes for you. And you can catch all the live interviews with my amazing joyful practice challenge guests in the Facebook community. James Dennis, Elizabeth Fadley, Simon Fisher, Billy Hunter, Stefan Jakiv, Tessa Lark, Damaria McGill, Alyssa Tong, Rachel Barton Pine, Mary Elizabeth Bowden, Vijay Gupta, Tom Hooten, Kim Kashkasyan, Brian Lewis, Jennifer Montone, Lori Niles, Elizabeth Rowe, Ralph Schiano, and Mimi Zweig. All these amazing guests shared their strategies to make practicing more joyful. There's so much value there. And I'm going to have the link for the Facebook community in the

notes for you, of course. All right, this is what I have for you this week. Much love going your way and à bientôt. Thank you guys so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Mind Over Finger podcast. If this content was helpful for you, please share with everyone you think could benefit from it. Take a screenshot, share on social media and tag me. I'm Mind Over Finger everywhere. So reach out, send me a DM and let me know how this content helped you. Let's keep the conversation going. As always, I have all the information related to this episode in the show notes. You can find them via your podcast app or by visiting mindoverfinger.com where you can also

find more free resources on efficient practice and performance preparation, links to sign up to my free workshops, and information on how to work with me. Don't forget to sign up for my newsletter to receive your free guide to a productive mindful practice, transcripts from the Mind Over Finger podcast episodes delivered to your inbox every week, and more. Also, join the Mind Over Finger Facebook community, my private group, for access to my live videos and to exchange with a community of like-minded musicians. So make sure you're subscribed to the podcast. And if you have specific questions for me or my guests that you would like answered in an episode, share them with me using the link in the show notes or send me a DM on Instagram or Facebook. That's it for today.

Again, thank you and à bientôt! Thank you.