The Mind Over Finger Podcast - 232 Grounded Practice – The Practice Strategy That Accelerates Real Growth Reset & Rise Series #4

Starting point is 00:00:00 You're listening to the Mind Over Finger podcast. This is episode 232. This is the fourth episode of your Reset and Ride summer series. And this one is all about patience and how embracing the process instead of pushing through it can actually get you where you want to go faster and more calmly. 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

Starting point is 00:00:44 Dr. René-Paul Gaultier. Hello there and welcome back to your Reset and Rise summer series. I'm so glad you're here. This episode is part of a special 10-episode journey I created just for you this summer to help you reignite your spark, rethink your practice, and show up with more clarity, confidence, and joy. Each episode builds on the last, so if you're just joining us, feel free to hop back to episode 229 and catch up. The series follows a clear arc. We start with reigniting your joy and connection to music. Then we move into mindset tools like alignment, patience, and self-compassion to bring more ease and clarity to your work. After that, we clear away hidden obstacles. And finally, we wrap up with powerful tools to help

Starting point is 00:01:40 you manage your mind and build real momentum. And if you're ready to go even deeper, check out my course, Practicing for Peak Performance. It's your full blueprint for performance success. And when you join this summer, you're going to get my Performance Anxiety Solution course for free. All the details are at mindoverfinger.com and the link is in the show notes. All right, ready to reset and rise? Let's dive in. Hi, everyone. In the last episode, I discussed the important principle of mind over finger, or in other words, the idea of alignment over unnecessary effort. Today, we continue with the one ingredient that is so crucial to progress, but is so often missing in the practice room, and that is patience.

Starting point is 00:02:43 Anyone who's ever worked with me, they know I love a good analogy. I like to compare inefficient and impatient practice with rushing out the door. You know how things are when we get ready in the rush. We start dropping things. We spill. We knock things down. We forget important steps in our morning routine. We might end up making it out of the house on time, but we forget stuff at home. We've got our sweater backwards. Our hair looks terrible. We forgot there's no gas in the car. You get the picture. And that's how it feels sometimes in performance if our practice was not as efficient as it could have been. And it was rushed. We don't feel settled. We don't feel

Starting point is 00:03:28 in control. And we might sound unpolished. And it's definitely not as much fun. One of my favorite quotes is from the book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. And he says, the prize must be paid and the process followed. You always reap what you sow. There is no shortcut. Let me read that one again because it's very important. The price must be paid and the process followed. You always reap what you sow. There is no shortcut. So make no mistake about it, my friends. The price must and will be paid sooner or later because shortcuts are in fact expensive, time-wasting dead ends. What we don't practice well today, we're going to have to practice again and again and again until we either master it through sheer effort in a great deal of

Starting point is 00:04:26 time or until we realize that rushing that process does not work. The quote-unquote shortcut usually leads us nowhere. And we realize that we have to go back to the drawing board and implement patient, and intelligent practice methods, right? Let's not forget mind over finger. So we can either make the effort to improve our work ethic and reap greater success, whatever success means to you, or pursue in our old ineffective methods and learn to accept our usual results. Don't get me wrong. I realize that life is a series of deadlines and that we have to meet them. And trusting in the process and waiting for progress to show can be so hard at times. But what I can tell you is that it's possible to find a balance in reaching short and long-term

Starting point is 00:05:23 goals and to adopt practicing habits that serve both purposes. First, we want to plan well. And I've got episodes that can help you with that. Check out episodes 136 through 140. And second, we want to work methodically and patiently. By learning well in the first place, we learn forever. We minimize the time spent working on mistakes and poor technique, and we maximize our sweat equity, and we save a great deal of time. The problem with that is that at first, things seem to go slowly. So we think that there's no progress and we try to rush things. But here's what I always say. Slow is fast and fast is slow. Patience leads fastest to your goals. When you follow the process with patience, your efforts will yield results.

Starting point is 00:06:23 But if you try to rush or force progress, you sabotage your own progress. Remember that myelination process from episode 141. It can happen quickly, but it does take some time. We need the right kind of repetitions spread over time. That's the concept of spaced repetitions. And how long it takes depends on the skills we already have and the degree of difficulty of what we're trying to learn. so if you already have a lot of the fundamental elements that would allow you to play a passage

Starting point is 00:06:57 for example you can learn it in a few minutes and that's great but if you're learning a very difficult passage that has a lot of techniques you don't master yet you're not just learning that passage you're creating a whole new set of neural connections and that happens over time When we try to rush the process, we pick up a lot of bad habits and a whole lot of negative thoughts and emotions. So what we want to do is get better at gauging how long it would take us to learn something or acquire a new skill and give those synapses and those neural circuits the best conditions to get formed properly. We also tend to get frustrated when we feel like we're in a plateau. We get fooled by the obvious absence of progress, but that's not quite what's happening.

Starting point is 00:07:50 Oftentimes, that's the brewing process for the skill we're working on. So what we need to do is trust the process and stick with our discipline, but not mindlessly, of course, always mindful, Always mind over finger. Again, we want the right kind of work done with patience over the right amount of time. And my favorite analogy for this is a story from The Three Little Pigs with the third little pig building himself a house of bricks. It took him a long time to build it and it was a very strong house. We want to make haste slowly. And when we do that, it can feel like we initially spent quite a lot of time on developing something new, but it's going to bring it to a high level of mastery in a way that will anchor it permanently. You get solid results and you're

Starting point is 00:08:48 done with it instead of struggling with the same difficulty for months. An efficient practice session requires a great deal of thoughtful patience. Patience to listen well, to pause in the presence of a problem, to ask the right questions, to analyze it, to think of ways to fix it, and finally, to work on it methodically and thoroughly. Another thing I like to say is that we fight the bad peas with the good peas. We prevent poor practice and promote proper practice with precise planning, a purposeful process, and plenty of patience. We're in the business of building brick houses, my friends. Now, there's one more thing I want to mention before I let you go. Superpowers are awesome, sure, but we sometimes see how they can cause a superhero's downfall.

Starting point is 00:09:44 So don't do that. Don't use patience against yourself. Being patient doesn't mean to give yourself way too much time and assume everything's going to take a long time. Don't use that as an excuse to be nonchalant in the practice room. In French, we say, il faut faire la part des choses. We have to find the right balance. So don't rush the process, but also don't stall it. Challenge yourself to move forward at a great pace, but don't get frustrated and rigid and tempted to cut corners. It's that Goldilocks factor. You want to be in that space where it's not too slow. It's not too fast. It's just right. And sometimes that's going to mean being on the edge of discomfort and that's okay. You know you're rushing the process when you feel urgency

Starting point is 00:10:37 and frustration. And you know you're being nonchalant when your practice is mindless and it feels mechanical. So try that this week. Be mindful. Check in with yourself and see if you're operating in that sweet space of giving yourself enough time, but not too much time. Look at whatever you're practicing. Notice what's involved. Is this something that's already within the scope of your abilities? If so, what are some ways you could work on it to solidly learn it from the get go? If not, what additional skills do you need to acquire so you can learn that passage? What's your short and long-term strategy for this passage? Do you need to include new drills or exercises in your routine to help with that? And plan to revisit the passage often and build it one brick at a time

Starting point is 00:11:34 patiently. Spaced repetition is your friend. And often check in with yourself. Keep tuning into your body and your emotions as you're practicing. Later this season, I'm going to bring you all sorts of tools to understand and process your emotions, but you don't have to wait for all that great content to get started and get clarity. Just pay attention to how you're feeling. What feeling is driving your practice right now? Are you feeling driven and interested? Or are you feeling powered by a sense of urgency, of impatience, of frustration that things aren't happening quickly enough. Do you have thoughts racing in your mind? Do you feel tension in your body? If you feel any of those or a combination of those things, pause. Put your right hand on your heart. Take three deep

Starting point is 00:12:28 breaths and try to understand where the urgency is coming from. Go back to your purpose, to your long-term goal. And notice how using patience now is the best way to get there. Be mindful in your approach. Be dedicated to your process. And get back to the business of building a house of bricks with a bucket full of patience next to you. Remember, slow is fast. And ponder on those questions this week as you practice. How am I feeling right now? What am I experiencing in my body? Which emotion is powering my practice right now? And by simply noticing your answers to these questions, you are going to get so much insight and I can pretty much guarantee it, get back to a place where you're going to be able to practice much more efficiently. So think about it and let

Starting point is 00:13:31 me know what insight it brings to you. This is what I have for you today. Remember, we're in the business of building brick houses. Slow is fast and patience is a superpower in the practice room. And there you have it. Thank you so much for spending this time with me today. If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love it if you'd share with your friends and colleagues. Take a screenshot, post it on social media and tag me. I'm mind over finger everywhere. I always love hearing your favorite takeaways. And if you're ready to take your playing career to the next level, I'd love to invite

Starting point is 00:14:18 you to join the Music Mastery Experience. This is my signature group coaching program where we're going to dive deep into building your confidence and mastery and set you up for success and fulfillment in your life and career. You can find all the details at mindoverfinger.com. While you're there, check out the free downloads and online courses available to support your journey even further. And don't forget to subscribe to my newsletter so you never miss an update or a tool to help you thrive. Again, thank you for being here. Until next time, much love and à bientôt.

The Mind Over Finger Podcast - 232 Grounded Practice – The Practice Strategy That Accelerates Real Growth Reset & Rise Series #4

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