This summer I told myself I wanted to really focus on music and more specifically my guitar skills over the next year. Last week I decided that I needed a plan and some sort of guidance to make that happen. So I decided to purchase a video series that completely covers the skill and techniques of sweep picking on guitar.
I needed something, anything, to keep my mind off the divorce. It’s been a rough few months. Thankfully I’m now working with a 5 star rated divorce lawyer and I think things are going to be ok. We’ll have to wait and see but things are looking up.
As I have been going through the videos to understand how my practice and lessons will progress I have found something very special. The instructor is a huge believer in persistence, understanding your flaws, defeating those flaws and most of all… Believing in yourself. Seeing how skillful he was in the videos was intimidating at times, but then he would realign focus to the importance of practicing perfectly and slowly and it that it takes time.
Over and over the instructor would remind me that it can be easy to lose focus and even more so… Faith.
It not only has resonated with me as a guitarist, but it has also resonated with me and my thoughts on everything I do. If I truly wish to become a specific kind of person, I must believe that I can become that person. It’s truly amazing how our mind can help us become what we wish to be. “Mind over matter” seems like a throw away saying, but when I look back at things I have done in the past, it always came down to that. I had to tell myself that I could do those things. I forced myself to make time to get things done.
My mind had control of the matters in my life.
I encourage you to believe in yourself even when believing seems impossible. When you defeat impossible, just imagine what you could do next.
Sometimes impossible is just a matter of perception. Teach yourself to see difficulty as an opportunity for greater things rather than less. What do you want to be? Start believing that you are that person and you might just surprise yourself. Just remember to be yourself and not try to be someone else.
