The Mind Over Finger Podcast - 198 How to Create Anything You Want – Part 2

Episode Date: April 26, 2024

In this episode of "Mastering the Stage" Part 2, we build on the foundational strategies from Part 1 to further enhance your project planning and execution. We discuss: ·         Avoiding common planning and execution errors. ·         Effectively assessing data and setting realistic, balanced goals. ·         Enhancing mindset and self-awareness to overcome artistic challenges. Tune in to refine your approach and achieve your musical and personal goals.   Book your FREE Music Mastery Experience Discovery call with Renée HERE Get access the entire workshop - including detailed worksheets, Q&A session insights, presentation slides, and a powerful visualization exercise HERE. Download the transcript from this episode HERE   Mind Over Finger Click www.mindoverfinger.com/coaching to book your free consultation with me. Visit MindOverFinger.com for my online courses as well as free resources on peak performance. Grab my free workshops and PDF downloads by going to www.mindoverfinger.com/resources. Connect: https://www.youtube.com/@MindOverFinger https://www.facebook.com/mindoverfinger/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/mindoverfinger https://www.instagram.com/mindoverfinger/     THANK YOU: Most sincere thank you to composer Jim Stephenson who graciously provided the show's musical theme:  Concerto #1 for Trumpet and Chamber Orchestra – Movement 2: Allegro con Brio, performed by Jeffrey Work, trumpet, and the Lake Forest Symphony, conducted by Jim Stephenson.  

You're listening to The Mind Over Finger Podcast, episode number 198. Welcome to The Mind Over Finger Podcast, where we dive into the world of mindful music making, peak performance, and crafting a purpose-driven life and career. I'm your host, violinist, certified performance and life coach for musicians, and your guide to unlocking your full potential, Dr. Ranipo Gautier. Hello there. I hope you're doing amazingly well as you're tuning in. Today's episode builds on our last discussion, diving deeper into how you can create anything you want. Yes, it's possible. This is part two of my recent live workshop, Mastering the Stage. In part one, in last week's episode, we set the foundation for your next big project. I showed

you what has been missing in the way you plan, and I share the key ingredients that are going to create different results for you. And today, we're going to create the blueprint that will lead you to success in any project. By the end of today's episode, you're going to have clarity on what to do to move forward with any big goal. As I shared with you in the last episode, I have companion worksheets for this that you can grab at mindoverfinger.com slash resources, and I will put a direct link for you in the show notes. And when you go to the link and grab the worksheets, you're also going to get instant access to the entire workshop for free.

You're going to get access to bonus content that I'm not sharing here on the podcast, like the slide decks, the Q&A portion of the workshop, which had so much great insight from the participants, and a powerful exercise that will transform your stage experience. So click the link in the show notes right now, grab the worksheets, get comfortable, and let's get you on your way to accomplishing your goals. I promise you results if you follow this blueprint.

And before we dive in, I want to remind you that the doors to my exclusive group coaching program, The Music Mastery Experience, are open for enrollment. and I have great bonuses for you if you book your call before April 30th. So don't wait. I understand the struggles high-level musicians face, whether it's self-confidence, performance anxiety, uncertainty, or low self-esteem. That's why I created the Music Mastery Experience. MME is a transformative coaching program designed to help you overcome these challenges and reach your full potential.

I'm asking you, are you ready to move past the frustrations and fears that hold you back? The Music Mastery Experience is here to help you remove the obstacles that hold you back and take your career to the next level. Don't let self-confidence, performance anxiety, uncertainty, or low self-esteem

stop you from reaching your goals. Join me this summer and embark on the transformative journey of self-discovery in growth. This comprehensive coaching program is tailor-made for musicians like you, focusing on not only honing your technical skills, but also nurturing your mental and emotional well-being. With personalized guidance and strategies to navigate performance anxiety, you're going to build unshakable self-belief

and experience a newfound freedom on stage. So say goodbye to self-doubt and hello to a future filled with confidence, success, and musical fulfillment. Go to mindoverfinger.com slash MME right now to start your journey. And book your call today to lock in amazing bonuses when you join by April 30th. I can't wait to speak with you. All right, now let's get to mastering the stage part two. I know you're going to be able to create amazing things for yourself with the help of this workshop.

Let's go to the show. So great to see so many of you again this morning. We had a great time yesterday. I had a great time yesterday and I heard from so many of you. Thank you so much for reaching out through DMs and emails about how helpful it was, this training, how much insight it brought to you, and that it was helpful overall. So my plan is for us to have a lot of fun today as well. Same as yesterday, I hope that you grabbed your worksheet, and I'm going to encourage

you to, as we're going, write down everything or anything that comes up for you instinctively. If your intuition is speaking to you, any word that pops up in your mind, write it down. Make a record of it. And then I will encourage you after the session, like yesterday, to reflect more on these exercises. One thing I actually tell my clients all the time is that everything is pretty much the last best draft of itself. So if you follow me for a while, we do reverse engineering, we plan, we do all these things, but a plan is only a starting point. So we always change things. We always course correct as we're going. And that's what life is. We constantly experiment. Life is just an ongoing experiment. So we change, we adapt, we modify things. So as you

go through this worksheet, as we were going through this workshop today, write down anything that pops up for you and then reflect on it later. And when you come back to it tomorrow, in the next few days, over the next few weeks, it's normal that it will evolve. It's going to be a living, breathing document for you. Totally normal. So let's talk. Let's get started. Today on the agenda, we are going to do a quick review of what we covered yesterday. Then we will create a plan. But if you follow me for a while, you know I talk about reverse engineering. I've talked about planning before, but this is going to be a different kind of plan. We're going to talk about the mindsets that you're going to bring with you forward in the practice room in your life as

you prepare for your next performance or any other project that you're tackling. And we're going to talk about what's next for you. I will be talking about the Music Mastery Experience, which is open right now for enrollment. So I will share about that at that moment. And then after that, like yesterday, we're going to have a Q&A session. And that was, I think that was my favorite part yesterday. So this is very exciting. Are you guys ready? Let's go. Let's review a little bit what we did yesterday. So we talked about how relying on things like willpower, rigid discipline, fitting the mold and outsourcing all information and insight. Those things don't work long term. We need all of that.

We need to use willpower at time. We need discipline. We need to observe what's been done before. We need to learn from what's been done before. We can even emulate what's been done before. And we need the information and insight from others. But we need to put that through the filter of who we are at the core and align it with our why.

We talked about these mindsets, self-compassion, flexibility, curiosity, reflection, authenticity, resilience, and being rooted in self. And those are the qualities that will nurture you in the pursuit of your goals. Always. The next performance, any goal you're tackling, it all begins with being. Think about it. There's one thing you are all the time is yourself. No matter what's happening in your head, no matter what you're feeling, you are yourself all the time. Now, we're not always in tune with ourselves. We're not always tuning into ourselves. And that's what we're aiming to change is for you to be really in tune and aligned with the self. You want to know who you are. You want to know your why. Why do you want what you want? And why are you going after

it? What is it going to bring to you? And know your why not. So the things that stop you in your tracks. We talked about embracing willingness. So you want to decide what you want, work out the price. You will have to pay to have it, be it emotional, intellectual, financial, energy, the entire scope of the operation, everything that it will cost you, quote unquote, to pursue this goal, to reach this goal, work out the price you're going to have to pay and then decide if it's worth it to you. It doesn't have to be. If it's not worth it, don't go after it. If it is, then you know exactly what you're in for. And when challenges pop up, you're ready. You're ready to face them. We talked about embracing doubt. How doubt will be part of the journey.

Every single day, every decision you make, you'll doubt a little bit. It's when you make it mean that something went wrong, that things get complicated. But if you understand that doubt is just part of it, it's not that something went wrong. That's if you're experiencing doubt, it means that you're probably doing things right. You're doing something. If you're experiencing doubt, it means you're doing something that's normal. So once you understand that, you embrace that doubt will show up. And when it shows up, you just get curious and grab all of your resources and make a decision. Amazing things happen after that. And then we talked about being the person who creates what you want. All right. So let's talk about what sabotages your progress. Poor

planning, right? I think that happens to all of us. Poor thinking and all of the mindset that come with that poor execution of the plan and neglecting basics, which is practicing and conditioning. So yesterday we talked about why those things happen, the things that sabotage the progress in our why-nots. And it always has to do with not being connected with our why, the things that we're thinking. Occasionally, yes, life circumstances happen. There could be an external event that influences and impacts whatever you're doing, a goal that you're pursuing. But let's say this is not occurring. The things that are going to impact and sabotage your progress usually are poor planning, poor thinking, poor execution of your plan,

neglecting the basics, which is mindful practice and solid conditioning, which I talked about in planning for your ideal performance. So does that sound familiar? Yeah. Well, and that's because it's easy to know what to do, but if it were easy to execute, we would all do it. Knowing what to do, it helps us catch ourselves in action and change things. That's why we're covering all these things. So let's change things and we're going to make some decisions. Don't you love these guys? I think they're so fun. Okay, so let's plan. Your plan. What is your specific goal? What, when, what repertoire, current and needed skills, life context, personal achievements, thought, etc., etc. I'm going to elaborate on all of that. So as you know, we do all of these things, all of the

planning from a place of being, from knowing who you are, from knowing your why, from being connected with your bigger purpose and know how is what we're going to do now. So issues with planning, they happen when we try to tackle everything at once. We're going to try to avoid that today. So as we get specific and we identify what is needed, what the issues might be, and we plan for it we ensure a higher rate of success for anything that you're pursuing and again we're talking more specifically about performance preparation in this workshop but if you extrapolate these notions to anything else that you're pursuing they still apply these are life principles so we're going to get specific and what i mean by that is we are going to talk about everything everything every

single detail. And we want to first assess the data. One thing that we don't do a lot of time is we don't face the music. Pun not intended. But the data is what will allow you to move forward. You must always get the information that you need in all of the data. Do not put your head in the sand. Do not try to avoid reality, right? Like I said yesterday, what Byron Katie says, which is when you fight reality, you lose, but only every time. Well, you need to know what the reality is. What is your current situation? So get and assess the data before you jump into action. I talked about priming inside the deep practice model. You've heard me. There's a podcast episode about priming, highly recommend it in preparation for performance. This is your life priming. This

is your project priming. We get and assess the data. Where are you now and what do you need to do to reach your goal? I like this quote by Arthur Ashe, start where you are, use what you have, do what you can. Secret of life. There we go. So where are you now and what do you need to reach Now, I made a list here. It's not exhaustive. It doesn't include everything, but it includes enough to get started. And I'm going to encourage you to grab this worksheet and start writing as I'm talking. I mean, pay attention to what I'm saying, of course, but anything that pops up in your mind. If you have a specific concert coming out, a jury, an audition, a performance, a recital, or any other project. As I'm talking, whatever pops up, start writing it down. What is the status

of your current skills? What is it that you're able to do? You're playing. You're evaluating what you're playing, basically. What is the state of your schedule? How busy are you? Any of these things. What is your life circumstance? What are you handling right now in your family life, in your all of that event details so what is it where is it and in all of the small details is it solo is it all of that i don't need to to give you a million examples you know exactly what i'm meaning all of the logistical details that go around a performance what when where then repertoire details what are you playing and then we move into the required skills to play this repertoire are. And as you look at this list of required skills that you're building and you go back and

this says your current skills, it's going to start to give you an idea of what you need to do in between. Any other logistics that you can think about that I did not mention and personal achievements sought. And for this, I mean, sky is the limit. Maybe your goal is to play something by memory for the first time in years. Maybe your goal is to play a piece that you've been wanting to play for years, or maybe your goal is to reach a specific state as you're performing, experiencing flow for the first time, experiencing freedom, a beautiful experience with your colleagues as you're playing a chamber music work what is the personal achievement or achievements that you're seeking in this performance all of this is part of the data and assess as well what

you're thinking so not just how you're playing but also what what you're playing like what you're thinking how are you mentally how are you emotionally how is this person right now get all of this data so understand the current thinking the patterns that you have that you know have this awareness of what is and create what you want in the future using this information this data right so um and last thing i want to say about this also is don't avoid data i think i've mentioned this already don't put your head in the sand it is so easy to do and that is crucial And when we skip this part of assessing the data, this is when we underestimate the cost of pursuing something.

And it's a huge, a huge progress killer when we're not realistic with where we are. I can give you a really concrete example of one way to avoid the data is if you never record yourself because you say things like, I don't like to hear myself. It makes me feel upset. That is one way that you're refusing to face the data. You've heard me say this countless times in live sessions, on the podcast. Recording yourself is one of the best ways to progress faster. When you don't record yourself because you're afraid, you're not facing the data.

Now, when you listen to yourself, you need to do that with compassion and curiosity. There's a mindset that we need to be in when we're listening to ourselves. and if you go back to yesterday's session and you're anchored in your why and you're anchored in your who listening to yourself is no longer an issue because you're pursuing a goal and you're willing to do what it takes to get there and parts of that is to listen to yourself to record yourself so you can assess your playing and know exactly what is so this is an example of where you might be refusing to face the data is if you're not recording and listening to yourself. One example. So get the data, get the facts, all businesses do it, right? So let's do, um, how do

you say in English? I'm blinking. I'm having the French expression for it right now. It's not coming to me. Just get the data and face it and assess it. All right. The second thing, and this is so important. Separate your short-term goals and your long-term goals. What can you do to be as prepared as you can be for this performance given where you are right now? And what are you pursuing long-term? This is so important, you guys. One of the biggest mistakes that we make is we're not clear on our expectations. So expectations of long-term versus the long-term needs versus the short-term goals. Someone raising their hand. No. Okay. So expectations of long-term abilities, skills versus the needs of the short-term goals. So important. And the problems, they come when

you mixed your end goal with your short-term objectives. And what I mean by this is that there's an ideal way that you want to play in the end. And sometimes that's not always realistic to reach that for short-term goals. So for example, you're not going to change your sound completely or your vibrato or any significant aspect of your playing for that performance that you have in six weeks. It's just not going to happen. What you need to do is adjust your expectations. Expectations can create so many problems in our life. So we need to know what they are and if they are appropriate for the circumstances. Know what your expectations are. Know if they're appropriate for the circumstance. This is so important. So work towards a long-term goal with patience, with

dedication and a clear, solid plan. And you establish a short-term goal for that next performance. And remember, this is very important, is each performance leads you to that ultimate performer that you're going to be. But when you keep thinking, I'm just not that performer yet. I'm not Gil Shaham. I'm not Hilary Hahn. I'm not Yu Zhao Wang. I'm not Yo-Yo Ma. that obstructs your thinking that stops your progress that keeps you stuck because your expectations are not realistic they don't match your current needs and it really prevents you from becoming that performer that you could be ultimately because you're impatient and you're rigid and you lack self-compassion and it's just not realistic so you sabotage your short-term

progress and therefore your long-term ability to become the best player that you can be. That is crucial, crucial, crucial, crucial, crucial step. And when I'm telling you that this is a different way of approaching performance preparation, this is another different way of approaching it. Yesterday was very different, I think, thinking about who you are first and your why and really focusing on this in this way. And now separating this, I'm not saying nobody does it, but I'm saying a lot of us skip that step. So what can you do to be as prepared as you can be for this performance, given where you are now and how much time you have to get ready

versus what are you pursuing long term? When you have clarity on both, things are different. So start seeing a much bigger plan for yourself and be much smarter about how you go about it. You want to give a really great performance in six weeks? what can you do? What will serve the performer you will be in six weeks? And what will serve the performer you'll be in one year and five years? What will serve the performer that you'll be in one year or five years is to be really smart about and good and kind to the performer

that's now and the performer that will be in six weeks. So I would say dream big for the long term and dream realistic for the short term. And now I gave myself credit for this. I know this quote is used in many other ways by many different people. So I'm not going to claim ownership on the concept, but I want you to walk away with this in your head today. Dream big for the long-term

and dream realistic for the short-term. This is very important. And dreaming big is important. Being ambitious, being... aiming for an absolutely phenomenal experience in life. It's important. But when you're not realistic in the short term, this is when you shoot yourself in the foot and you sabotage your progress because it's overwhelming. It's not something you can accomplish. And what we want to do is make it easy to do right and hard to go wrong. Another one of my favorite Gretchen Rubin

quote, make it easy to do well and hard to go wrong by setting realistic goals. So next, oh, I don't want to, let me go back here for a quick second. In your worksheet, I have a table for you. So make a list of the long-term goals and a list of clear objectives for the next performance. And as I just said, set small steps to create a lot of success for yourself, success that you can celebrate and you can feel proud about along the way. And that will boost your motivation. OK, so start writing down things that pop up for you and then go back and revisit this

page and fill it out later today. And then the third one is thinking about the practicing methods and getting an idea of what it is that you're going to utilize. What practicing techniques, what systems, what philosophies are you going to use in your preparation? And I don't want to tell you what that is, right? So there is a lot out there for you to use. There's a lot of things that you already use.

I want you to start thinking about this for a second. anything that pops up in your mind about what it is that you're going to use. And then, of course, there's a, as I said, there's a lot of thing out there, right? I gave you a training last week called planning for your ideal performance in the past few weeks. I have so many podcast episodes on this where I talk about planning your practice. These are the smaller logistics, right? Now we have the bedrock plan. We have the bedrock plan rooted in being. We're anchored in our why. now we can start taking action using the tools you already have in an intentional way and this is where you can include all the tools that I've shared with you all the tools on the podcast in my

online courses in my as I just said the planning for ideal performance series all of this and everything that you know already of course but too many times we jump right to this plan first how to practice, and we skip all of that preliminary work that we did yesterday in the work that we're doing today. So the plan, once you've done the work from day one, rooted in why, you're rooted in being, and knowing your why not, understanding the patterns that keep you stuck, then you can plan more specifically with the logistics. So you get and assess the data, you separate your long-term versus your short-term goals so that your expectations are tailored to any situation you're facing, any goal you're pursuing. And then you make a plan of

what are the tools that you're going to use for that? What technique methods are you going to do? And you start planning maybe a reverse engineering plan. I have a whole podcast about this. So I'm not going to go at length about this today because I already have so many resources for you on this out there okay now let's talk about something very important which is that being before doing who are you being at every step of the way as you take action preparing for this performance I talked about that a lot yesterday I cannot talk about it enough that's the one thing many of us are not doing so this is important because when you are different you act differently. And I'm thinking that maybe you're here because you're willing to try something

different. And I want to give you a few examples from my life and maybe examples from your life will pop up as well. I know that as a patient person, the type of work that I do is different than when I'm impatient. If I have clarity as to who I am, my why, short-term goals, long-term goals. I'm assessing the situation. I got the data. I have a big, clear map in front of me of the situation. And I set the intention to go about it in a patient way because I am patient. In the practice room, I face situations calmly. If I feel stuck, I find solutions. I get creative about moving forward versus impatient when I get rigid and tense and the panic can set in and it would just not efficient at all. So as a patient person, the work is different.

If I'm calm versus being hectic, if I'm intent on finding solution versus feeling like a victim, it's different, right? And that's a very important one is when you're rooted in being and you know your why and you understand the situation and you have, and you are determined versus being at cause, being the victim of all of the situations around you and refusing responsibility, the work is different. So who are you as you take action moving forward? Remember yesterday I said, it's not going to be easy. Preparing for our performance, growing as an artist, there's stumbling blocks every five minutes in the practice room.

It's not necessarily going to be easy. So who are you going to be as those pop in the practice room in front of you? Who are you going to be as you're facing this growth, right? Growing pains. My children experience them all the time. Who are you going to be as you're facing these growing pains, these challenges, when things don't go your way, when it feels like life is against you? Who are you going to be?

When you decide that ahead of time, you have a strategy. Okay, let's get back full circle and we are going to talk about mindset. Here's a very important one. one. Accept the whole spectrum of emotions that this journey will offer you. All of the emotions are going to pop up. Joy, fear, enjoyment, anger, feeling less than, feeling successful, all of it. If you are willing to experience all the emotions, your experience will be different. Have this awareness. Life is 50-50. Negative emotions do not mean something went wrong. It means that you're having a human experience. It means that you're living a human life.

So when these negative emotions pop up, you get curious. You investigate them. You could use the self-coaching model I presented in episode 153. So accept the whole spectrum of emotions that this journey will offer you. Already there, if you do that half the battle almost not quite maybe yesterday we talked about downing your doubt so important self-compassion is a huge tenant in the deep practice model which is what i teach inside my courses inside my deep my music mastery experience program self-compassion and what i mean by that is being self-respectful and trying to make decisions that nurture you not decisions that keep you stuck and keep you being less than you can be, but decisions that nurture you and you

treat yourself in a respectful way. Self-compassion will create miracles in your life. Curiosity, awareness, and joy in the practice rooms. These are the mindsets that I talk about so much all the time with the clients. Self-coaching using the model can be very, very helpful. We talk about that in length in my programs, but you can catch episode 153, 54, and 55 for an introduction to how to use that to really start creating different results in your life. Positivity bathing. I think I came up with this term. I'm not sure, but I think I did. We'll see. I should Google it. what I mean by this is we have a tendency as human beings to only focus on the negative there's a really good reason for this is in order to stay alive we need to be centered on risk

we need to be aware of risk so that we can mitigate them so that we can run for our life if there's a danger so we are wired we have these neural connections wired so powerfully in the amygdala to notice all risk. But we also do it at the cortex level with our thinking, where we start to evaluate any possible risk at every level to stay safe. As I said yesterday, human beings, they want to seek pleasure, avoid pain, and do that in an efficient way. So at any time, we're trying to see how we can avoid pain and find pleasure. and that makes us focus a lot on the negative. What I want to invite you to do is to give equal time to the positive possibilities. You give a lot of time to all the negative

possibilities, everything that could go wrong. What I'm going to ask you is a huge shift, right? A paradigm shift in your approach is to give equal time to the positive possibilities. not saying that risk wouldn't happen it's good to get the data and assess it what could be risky here but do not only look at that you need right what you focus on you bring about you also need to look at the positive possibilities what could go well in this thing okay so if you're thinking and believing all of the negative thoughts i'll use one i hear a lot i'm not good enough you're constantly going to find evidence of that. If you pause for a second and you give equal opportunity to the opposite thought, I might be, maybe I'm a little bit good. Maybe it's possible I might be

good enough. I think you'll find evidence that this is also true, right? I don't belong here. If that's all you think about, think about what you're creating in your life. If you're thinking I don't belong and you feel excluded, the actions you take are different and it creates a certain reality in your life. When you start to try to see how do I belong? It's possible that I belong. Where's the evidence that I belong? I think you'll find it. So positivity bathing is very powerful for me because like a human being, I have a tendency to go to the negative first. So when I do what I call positivity bathing, it really allows me to access a lighter part of myself that is more centered on the positive, which fuels my motivation, fuels my enthusiasm,

fuels my determination, and it really pulls me forward. Remember yesterday when I was saying that your purpose, that it really pulls you forward, your willingness pulls you forward. Well, for me, positivity also pulls me forward. So positivity bathing, if you're someone who has a tendency to dwell on the negative, try it. And you can do this in any way. And that could be some of my favorite ones. First one, gratitude practice. Grab a journal, write three things you're grateful for every day. And I rolled my eyes like that so much. I thought it was the tackiest thing I had ever heard until about 40 million people kept talking about it. And I thought, I'll just give this a shot, it is life-changing. So gratitude. My gratitude practice, I have mala beads in my car,

here in my desk, in my bedroom, in my wallet. And if there's time, sometimes I'll sit with my mala beads and I'll try to find 108 things to be grateful for. And I like to joke that coffee is always in there. So gratitude practice, one of the best way to bathe in positivity, to start appreciating the great things in your life. Affirmations are great. There's so many great resources on affirmations out there. I don't want to stay with this. I could talk about just that all day, but let's move on.

Journaling is a good way. There's motivational videos out there. There's motivational reels. I mean, it's all over the place, right? So positivity bathing is something that could be an additional spark, an additional tool in your arsenal as you're moving forward with your goal. And I would recommend that you build a list of helpful mantras for yourself. One that I've really liked recently, I'll share it with you, is it makes a difference.

It makes a difference. I only have five minutes to practice, but it makes a difference. I only have one minute to spend on this measure, but it makes a difference. So when you're feeling overwhelmed because there's so much to do and you feel like you have to do a huge Herculean effort, I don't know how to say this in English, Herculean, huge effort, superhero effort, thinking that every little thing makes a difference makes you move forward. You take action.

And guess what? if you spend one minute on a measure it makes a difference and that fuels the progress constantly and it's a small win that makes you feel like you did something makes you feel good that builds your self-confidence so you could borrow mine for the next few weeks but that's been my favorite lately it makes a difference so when there's a little something that I think maybe there's not enough time or it wouldn't matter when I think it makes a difference and I do it it makes a difference. It's amazing. So think about all of these things. And then believe me when I say this is that this performance is only one step on your journey to mastery. We put so much of our mental

effort on one performance that is just one step on your journey to mastery. So focus on what you can do for this performance as you continue to work towards being the performer that you want to be in the future. And this is super important. The magic you're looking for isn't the work you're avoiding. I heard this a while ago and it blew my mind because how true is this? It's a powerful reminder that the path to growth and to transformation is often through the things we fear the most, like recording yourself. And the type of performance you're looking for to achieve it's going to require a lot of you you're going to have to be dedicated and thorough in your preparation and that implies the saying that the aspects of practice or rehearsal that you might

be avoiding the ones you neglect or maybe you don't you don't condition you don't play for people whatever the aspects are in your preparation that you're avoiding they might be precisely where the potential for excellence lies for you. So embrace that hard work, get the data, assess it, and then tackle it. It doesn't have to feel awful or hard. And when you're feeling pulled forward by your purpose, it feels empowering. Again, when you're connected to your purpose, when you know who you are, your why, when you know the price that you're willing to pay to get what you want, and you go about it with patience, with curiosity, with self-compassion, with self-love. The process itself with all of the emotions you're going to experience, it feels fulfilling and it really

grows you. It brings you closer to being this performer that you want to be ultimately this person. It's not going to be easy. It's going to push every single button you have. It will test you in every way possible, but you know you're willing because you have clarity of purpose. you know your why. And this is how we become self-realized, right? So get the data, face the music, look at what is that you're trying to avoid with awareness and curiosity and see how it could benefit you. And the quality and impact of a performance, they're always, yeah, always directly linked to the commitment. Not always, because sometimes we can rely on our experience and we acquired a lot of experience. But in a lot of cases, it's linked to the commitment and

involvement and effort that we put into the preparation process. So speaking of which, let's talk about performing. We'll talk about performing for a second. I'm going to say it again. I want you to be sick of hearing me say this. Optimal performance is more easily attained when you're rooted in being and you're connected to your why. Your preparation must match your vision. You get the data, you have your vision, you assess what's needed, and you plan for a preparation that will match that vision.

Each performance is only one step on your journey to mastery. And most importantly, that's a big one again, believe it. Believe your dream performance is possible. I'm not talking about law of attraction here. I'm talking about believing that it's possible. Trust in self. Trust in your ability to figure it out. Trust in your ability to find what it is that you need and go after it.

So if you believe it, you're going to make it happen. If you believe it, you're going to implement the things that I've been talking about yesterday and today. If you believe it, you're going to take action. You're going to get past the hurdles. You're going to face all of the stumbling blocks. You will process the discomfort. You're going to be willing to experience all of the emotions, the good ones, the bad ones.

And if you believe it, you're going to be patient. You're going to have compassion for yourself. You'll be respectful. You're going to be determined and courageous and strong and perseverant. So if you believe it, you can make it happen. And I promise you that it's all worth it. Review. Let's review and then jump into the Q&A.

so you want to identify your common saboteurs what are they what keeps you held back get and assess the data of your upcoming performance separate so important your short versus long-term goals reflect on the practice methods you're going to use and it's all about the being before the doing once you have all of these elements in place This is when you prepare, you condition, and you manage your mind. So you practice, you condition, and you manage your mind using all of these tools. And you nurture your mindset throughout all of this. Your homework is going to be to reflect and expand on these exercises from today in your

worksheets and intentionally pick a specific emotion to embody in your work, then practice with this emotion. I want you to try that today. it's a really fabulous experimentation. And I think that once you try it, you're going to want to try it again. Experiment with various emotions. Be in the beam. So for example, you're practicing and you're wondering, you know, I've been feeling a little self, you know, self-conscious lately. I wonder what it would feel like to play while feeling confident. Well, channel this feeling of confidence. You can either draw from a memory, a past experience, you felt confidence and you

remember what that felt like, what you were thinking about while you were feeling confident. And remember, we feel a specific way because of what we're thinking. So as you're drawing from this memory, try to remember what is it that I was thinking that made me feel confident? Why was I able to feel confident? There's something in my mind, it was a sentence in my brain that made me feel confident and channel this feeling of confidence and play with that for a few minutes or free freedom either freedom from the expectations of others or have on you are the expectations that you have on yourself if you were just free you allowed yourself freedom what would it be like or i don't know any other emotion that you want to experience

intentionally pick a specific emotion to embody in your work and practice with this emotion and tell me what happens and tomorrow we're going to visualize your stage sanctuary this is a really really powerful technique to condition powerfully for performance it's really fabulous there you have it thank you for joining me today i hope you enjoyed the episode now that you've been through part one and two of the workshop don't forget to go to mindoverfinger.com resources to grab the rest of the workshop and access the powerful exercise i introduced in day three that will take your stage presence to the next level. As I said at the beginning, I promise you results if you follow this blueprint. So take the concepts and run with them.

Grab the worksheets, do the reflection exercises, experiment, and don't hesitate to reach out to me if you need guidance on this journey. You can find me on Instagram at Mind Over Finger or on Facebook and you can also join the Mind Over Finger Facebook community and get free coaching during one of my Q&A sessions. I have that link in the show notes. And don't forget, the doors to the Music Mastery Experience are open right now, but the bonuses are going away soon. So if you want to get unstuck, if you want to get clear,

if you want to know what your next steps are, if you want support and tools and an amazing community, and if you're looking for results that will blow your mind you're gonna love the music mastery experience head over to mindoverfinger.com slash mme right now to join all right that's what i have for you this week until next time much love going your way and à bientôt Thank you.